Types of Recycling

Globally, the annual production of plastics is estimated to be 800 billion lbs.  With a world population of 7.2 billion, that’s 111 lbs. of plastic produced annually for every person in the world! 

Industry has made more than 9.1 billion tons of plastic since 1950 and there's enough left over to bury Manhattan under more than two miles of trash, according to a new cradle-to-grave global study. Plastics don't break down like other man-made materials, so three-quarters of the stuff ends up as waste in landfills, littered on land and floating in oceans, lakes and rivers, according to the research reported in Wednesday's journal Science Advances.

Must recycling go backwards in order to move forward? On Earth Day 1971, a poignant public service message The Crying Indian spurred our nation to stop littering. Environmentally conscious communities picked up discarded bottles, cans, and papers from our roads and streams and local governments imposed fines for littering.

Recycling household plastic containers can be a challenging endeavor. Since all plastics are not alike, we need to know which types of plastics our municipality accepts for recycling. Hair care products, beverages, laundry detergents, yogurts, margarines, salad dressings, frozen dinners, household cleaners, condiments, pet foods, body lotions ƒ (you name it) are available in plastic containers. Since different plastics have different properties, the containers we so enthusiastically recycle often contain more than one type of plastic. Plastic properties such as strength, toughness, flexibility, barrier to moisture or gas, and melting point are all important factors which help to maintain the integrity of packaged goods.