Recycling and Waste Directory

The Problem With Plastic

Plastics are becoming a big problem, so let’s use less of it. In our purple bins we recycle steel, aluminum, glass, paper, and plastics. Most of these materials can be recycled into similar products. 

Plastics, on the other hand, don’t maintain their original strength after the recycling process so they are “down-cycled” to carpet or clothing fibers for instance, and these are in turn down-cycled to plastic lumber. If plastics are not properly buried in landfill at the end of their useful lives, the material breaks down into micro particles, which contaminates our land, oceans and air. 

Until manufacturers dramatically reduce the use of plastic packaging we can vote for less plastic with our purchases. At the grocery store pack your purchases in reusable bags made from cotton, hemp, or other natural fibers. This is a simple idea, but apparently a tough habit to form, as many shoppers have been slow to adopt the practice. 

Gather produce in cotton mesh bags and try bulk versus pre-packaged dry goods. Go for fresh produce over processed foods for better health and to utilize nature’s packaging, the skin of the fruit or vegetable.

At the retail or big box store pay attention to the amount of plastic used to protect, display, and market products. Try to put environmental stewardship above brand loyalty. If your best option is the one with lots of plastic and you don’t mind going out of your way to influence the manufacturer, send them an email to express your interest in better packaging for the sake of our planet.

Do We Need All That Packaging?

It’s worth the extra effort to increase your recycling rate beyond what you toss in the purple bin and future generations will thank you for that, including your attention to the first 2 R’s: Reduce and Reuse.

Wouldn’t it be helpful if companies made their products more recyclable so we could therefore increase our recycling rate? This idea has been named EPR — Extended Producer Responsibility — and is gaining traction in state capitols across the country.

Today, producers have little responsibility for the reuse, recycling, or disposal of products they sell. The burden instead falls on consumers and our environment. Baby steps have been made with producers taking responsibility for paint, batteries and some electronics, but only in a handful of states. This will soon expand as legislators in a dozen states have been developing comprehensive EPR legislation with stakeholders. The expectation is to encourage companies to rethink product design and packaging to ultimately decrease what we send to the landfill.

Reusable/Refillable/Returnable Containers

According to the EPA the average American generates 5.9 pounds of trash per day of which only 1.5 pounds is recycled. Reusable/refillable/returnable containers are one possible solution to reducing our trash. 

TerraCycle has partnered with several large food and consumer goods companies on a container return program they call Loop.  Participating manufacturers design Loop product containers to survive up to 100 reuses.  For now, Loop customers in the pilot region of the mid-Atlantic states shop on-line and receive their shipments via UPS in a special tote.  This same tote is used to return empty Loop containers.  A goal is to also sell Loop products at major retailers like King Soopers and Walgreens. 

It’s good news that giant corporations like Unilever, Nestle and Procter and Gamble are pursuing ways to reduce single-use packaging so let’s hope the Loop experiment yields positive gains for the environment and can be scaled up so everyone has access to a convenient, efficient returnable containers program.

You can do your part by refilling and reusing your own containers, whenever and wherever possible.