I was perusing some informationthat came with my Madison PRIDE (People Recycling In Defense of the Earth…yeah, I know, it’s Madison) recycling bags and it was stated that even a single non-1 or non-2 plastic item mixed in with a load of recyclable 1 or 2 plastics it will render the entire load unusable for new products. This boggles my mind. Why would this be so? Is there a ratio of recyclable to non-recyclable material that constitutes a threshhold after which recycling the “tainted” material is impossible? It just seems odd to me that plastics could be so physically or chemically different that, say, a plastic cup or two weighing less than half an ounce could render unusable tons or pounds of otherwise recyclable material.
We just got a plastic re-cycling facility in my home town (in West Cork - Ireland) and you can throw any kind of plastic into it, as well as polystyrene …
Probably has about as much accuracy as when your Mother told you “your face could freeze with that pouty expression on it, and then you’d have to live the rest of your life looking like that.” And has much the same purpose – trying to scare you into doing what they want you to do.
I don’t know, t-bonham@scc.net, it depend on what they want to use it for. Some chemical processes are quite sensitive to changes in feed. Unless the price of oil spikes, the quality control issues kill off you economic viability (cite). If you’re grinding it up and using it a filler, as in Lobelia Overhill’s case, then your quality control standards are pretty low.
My lecturer worked for a recycling company, and gave an example for glass recycling. If you took a large skip (~3x4x2m) full of clear glass, the quality standard were so strict that a single brown-glass coffee cup was enough to get the entire shipment rejected.
And here’s another little recycling secret. You know those recycled paper? Most of the old paper is sourced from the factory off-cuts when they manufacture it, and not from those recycle bins. Cecil Cite
A manager of a recycling facility told me the same thing a few years ago. It has to do with the relatively low temperature necessary to process the nos. 1 and 2 plastic types. The example was that it is OK to recycle aluminum foil with food remaining on it because the meltdown process burned off the food and didn’t affect the quality of the new foil.
PET (no. 1) plastic soda/bottled water bottles have to have those annoying little white jaggy rings (and caps) removed prior to processing because it contaminates the clarity of PET plastic during reprocessing. The sorters at the recycling center toss the whole bottles into the garbage if they see a white ring on them. Labels too. Though some cities collect other types of plastic from feel good recycling programs, usually the non No. 1 and 2 stuff goes to the dump because the market is often too weak to support the costs associated with reprocessing. This economic reality has subsequently diminished my enthusiasm for the concept of recycling plastic.
Is’t possible that the technology has improved since you learned this? I just consulted the pamphlet I got from the local Department of Public Works. Under plastics it says, “Rinse clean and remove lids. Rings and labels are OK”
it depends on the end use of the plastic. In general polyethylene, polypropylene and polycarbonate have incredible strength for their weight, allowing ultralight plasic bags, bottles etc. This is in part due to the fact there are no “defects” in the structure, and very careful control of their chemical makeup. Now plastics dont mix well, and the presence of impurities, or the wrong sort of plastic causes weak points. So if you are making low end use materials, you can handle a bit of mixing. But, it would be impossible for most applications requiring good strength.
It sure is. I was mistaken–from what I have been reading, they grind up used PET bottles and run the mass through a tub o’ water. The rings and labels float to the top; the good stuff sinks to the bottom.
I guess I’ll be a little less fastidious with recycling PET bottles now. Thanks for setting me straight.
Yeah I would have to agree that key word there is “new products” . In our area here they take almost every sort of plastic but I’d bet it isn’t used for anything that is quality. A lot of those plastic soda bottles are used for carpeting and that has to be of good quality. I like the idea of putting all forms of plastic in the recycling process, it sure saves a lot of room in the landfill and hopefully it is put to good use. I hear that a lot of our plastic is shipped to overseas for reuse.
Anything other than type-1 or type-2 plastic cannot currently be recycled economically. If they collect type-3 or type-4 or whatever other type, they just truck it out to the landfill when noone’s looking.
Seat foam can be “reconstituted,” ie ground up and glued back together as a new seat pad, but the resultant seat tends to be rather firm.