Did you know this?...
When you're recycling plastic bottles (water bottles, for example), never leave the cap on the bottle itself.
Why?
According to Jessica Jenson of Low Impact Living:
They just chuck any bottles with lids on them".
Hmmmmm.... I did not know that.
The folks at the recycling plant simply won't take the time (or expend the energy) to take lids off of plastic bottles.
It makes sense when you think of all the millions of bottles they must receive... but still. That means you'd actually be wasting your time & effort spent recycling if you toss a water bottle into the "plastics" bin with the lid on it!
FYI, Jessica was the "green expert" who appeared on "Living With Ed" on HGTV last night. I liked the show. And I liked Jessica. (I just signed up for the Low Impact Living newsletter, too.)
Okay, the take-away here is:
Throw the lids in the trash, and recycle the plastic bottles alone.
I'm sure my friend, Jeffrey already knew this. But I obviously still have a lot to learn.
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The lids have a sealent in them to keep them from leaking that jams up the recycling machine.
Aveda has launched a great new program for recycling plastic lids! Go to Aveda.com/caps for info. I have an extra large crystal vase that was rarely used...it's now the "cap bin."
I know that whole foods market can recycle them in some locations now. They are doing a program called Gimme 5. It is recycling all #5 containers that things like yogurt and sour cream come in. What I didn't know either was that when you recycle those into a bin they also may throw those away. At least here in Florida. I just found out that the caps could be recycled.
I agree, don't just throw the lids away! I have been saving mine for a long time now, and just looking for where or how to recycle them. If not, then I was just going to make a collage out of them.
recycling is fun
Don't throw the lids in the trash, they can be recycled!
Why must the lids be removed from the bottles? All of the info that I have read says to remove them but doesn't say why or what happens if you don't.
I'm wondering - to keep animals from going through my recyclables, I saw on a TV show that you can put an "L" shaped slice in gallon jugs to stick the cat food cans in them. Do recycling plants just throw these away also?
I was wondering about the cap ring as well. I have noticed that the cap usually has a different material glued to the underside of the cap to seal the container. This material might not be recyclable even though the plastic is, so the ring might still be recyclable.
But what about the plastic ring under the cap that stays? Does that make a difference? As far as I can tell, it's the same plastic as the cap. HELP!
The three-arrows recycling symbol originated in the recycling community. However, it was later appropriated by the plastics industry to indicate plastic type, so that they can put a feel-good recycling symbol on all their products REGARDLESS OF whether it actually can be recycled. See Elizabeth Royte's book Garbage Land.
Only plastics 1 and 2 have a substantial resale value in most parts of the country. If your community burns garbage, plastic 6 (polystyrene, often in the form of styrofoam) can be used to raise temperatures in the incinerator, which results in more complete combustion and less carcinogenic pollution. Plastic 7 ("Other", which means "All sorts of junk that we can't classify") is totally worthless -- it ends up in the landfill with a detour through a recycling plant where it gets rejected. Toss it in the trash yourself and save some diesel fuel spent hauling it around.
More than recycling, you can contribute by NOT BUYING plastics that are not recyclable. Or better yet, reduce your consumption of plastics as much as possible. Closed-cycle plastic recycling is very rare, more often it gets "recycled" once into artificial fleece or astroturf, and then goes straight to a landfill after one cycle.
No - I won't give up! In fact, I have emailed my recycling center to ask about the lids. I will remove them from now on, but I am curious! And I learned that I can only recycle Plastics # 1 and 2. Wonder why?
THANKS, Jessica!
Thanks for stopping by. And thanks for taking the time to clarify.
I thought there might be differences by region. That, or something like a "phase 2" of recycling set up within the recycling centers where someone re-sorts what's leftover (...or takes the lids off plastic bottles, in this case).
It's hard to imagine the recycling industry would choose to "trash" an item that is mostly recyclable (...at least in some states).
So, for our local readers...
--> Here's the Nashville Recycling Center. They recycle plastics #1 thru #7 too, but I don't see any mention of lids as being acceptable or not acceptable. Digging deeper, I found this .pdf which says under Plastic Bottles & Containers: "PREPARATION-Rinse containers. Do not need to remove lids or labels." (FYI glass containers DO need to have the lids removed, but not the labels.)
--> Here's the recycling center for Williamson County, Tennessee. Again, no mention of lids as far as plastic bottles are concerned. For glass it says: "GLASS JARS & BOTTLES - Rinse & discard lids." Since there's nothing about lids mentioned for plastics, I'm guessing that means plastic lids are OK in Williamson County, TN.
Thanks again for your time, Jessica!
Hi all-- It's Jessica here from Low Impact Living (the woman on the Living with Ed show).
Thanks for watching the show Lynnette and for trying to get the good word out about proper plastics recycling!!
Please don't give up Diet Coke Drinker!! I was NOT trying to dissuade people from recycling-- to the contrary I was trying to encourage them to recycle in the best way possible.
The truth is that recycling varies quite a bit by city. For example, in Los Angeles, we can recycle plastics numbered 1 thru 7, whereas is some cities you can only recycle 1s and 2s. And the bottle cap issue also varies. You really need to check with your city's Bureau of Sanitation or recycling program and get the details. (Just google your city name and sanitation and/or recycling-- it's worth the search trust me.)
Thank you! Jessica (and please check out our site for more environment tips and services-- www.lowimpactliving.com)
Well that just sucks! I recycle tons of diet coke bottles, and I always leave the lids on! I don't like the drippy mess in my recycling bin! Don't you think they would be able to make the lid out of recyclable plastic too! Geesh, what a waste my lifetime of diet coke drinking has been in the world of recycling!