Learn about the ingredients in Tom's of Maine Antiplaque Floss. One major exception to this caps-on rule is metal lids. The caps of water and other drink bottles are usually made of polypropylene (PP, plastic number 5), with some varieties made of HDPE (plastic number 2). According to the Science History Institute, [c]urrent healthconcerns focus on additives (such as bisphenol A [BPA] and a class of chemicals called phthalates) that go into plastics during the manufacturing process, making them more flexible, durable, and transparent.. For more eco-friendly ideas and tips, follow the Thinking Sustainably board from @tomsofmaine on Pinterest! Let's all try to be a force for good recycling in the world! Coffee cups are similar to the packaging enclosing snacks like health bars. This kind of design, however, makes recycling the product super difficult, especially since the layers are often very thin and stacked tightly on top of one another. That's generally not possible for recycled PET, which is sourced from many different recycling and bottle deposit programs of variable quality that depend on what people put in the bin. While many plastics degrade in quality when recycled and can only be recycled once or a handful of times, "PET is the one plastic you can recycle over and over again," says Michael Schedler, a plastic recycling consultant who has worked in the industry for decades. Here are some tips on how to minimize the environmental impact of your travels so you can enjoy an environmentally friendly, green vacation. If they are confused or given false information, they end up making choices they might otherwise avoid.. 7 infographics correspond to the 7 classifications of plastics and debunk common (mis)assumptions about plastics & recycling. The average recycled content of PET bottles in Canada was only 19 per cent in 2015, Schedler's study found. By submitting a comment, you accept that CBC has the right to reproduce and publish that comment in whole or in part, in any manner CBC chooses. Well, its a little more complicated than that. It includes both non-recyclable and biodegradable plastics. According to Dasdy Lin, you cant recycle melamine because it is a thermoset plastic: it wont melt again- the only way is to incinerate it.. Lauren Cullum, Sierra Club Californias Sacramento-based policy advocate, said the suits are part of a broader effort to pick up lost ground after the ambitious California Circular Economy and Plastic Pollution Reduction Act stalled in the legislature in 2020. However, thermoset plasticscontain polymers that cross-link to form an irreversible chemical bond, meaning that no matter how much heat you apply, they cannot be remelted into new material and hence, non-recyclable. That's not bad, but bottles and jars aren't the only things made from PET so are grocery store clamshell containers for things like berries and muffins, known in the industry as "thermoforms." Dasdy Lin, Sustainability Consultant at the Plastics Industry Development Center (PIDC), shared these three reasons: Safety consistency and stability of products without risk of breaking, Say for example, I ship 100 bottles and in the end, I only receive 98 because 2 broke. "It doesn't make it cheaper, but it makes it better," she added. "At the end of the day, they've made the decision to put the containers out there," he said. (As a consumer, you cant tell the difference. (Spring Pool Glass Co. Ltd., a glass recycling and innovation company based in Taiwan, is an excellent example of this.). If your drink has a paper label, do recycle it with your paper recycling. Currently it uses 11 per cent worldwide. "Everyone wants stability.". She completed a B.A. It's important to know how to recycle water bottles the correct way, so be sure you're up to date on the latest recycling rules! Feel good once you finish your Starbucks and place that innocuous paper cup in the recycling bin? With a single-use water bottle, it is still best practice to give it a rinse to remove germs and backwash and let it dry a bit. Remember, recycled materials (i.e. But once that water bottle is empty, how do you go about recycling it properly? Even the portion that does get recycled is never 100 percent recyclableabout 28 percent is lost to processing or contamination and ends up in landfills. Your local government also plays an essential role. MRF equipment usually sorts plastics by shape, and you want your bottle to be recognizable by the machinery. When search suggestions are available use up and down arrows to review and enter to select. On the contrary, the product Americans use at a rate of 3,400 every second100 billion a yearis far more likely to end up in rivers, oceans, roadsides, landfills, and incinerators than inside any sort of recycled product. Public investment in recycling systems, moreover, is integral to their long-term sustainability and success. Read reviews of our whitening toothpaste without bleaching chemicals. Some recycling programs in Canada already have partial or full EPR. The recycling plant process typically separates the lids from the bottle by how their plastic content floats in water. The number is its "resin code," which often appears in a triangle that resembles the recycling symbol. But every municipality is different. For example: 1. By signing up, you are opting in to receive periodic communications from the Sierra Club. Ive spent the last five months talking to various experts in Taiwan, one of the worlds innovators in recycling systems AND major producers of plastics, to put together this list. The PP (Polypropylene) film protects the liquid from seeping into the paper (and thereby burning you) and keeps your warm drink from cooling too quickly. Should you even bother recycling? On the other hand, Schedlernotes that such items have quite a long lifespan compared to a plastic water bottle. To learn more, visit, linked to disrupting hormonal growth and carcinogens. Even if you are committed to using a reusable water bottle for your daily water intake while on the go, there still may be times you find yourself drinking from a single-use plastic water bottle at an event or an unplanned thirsty moment. The end goal with all this is to get further and further away from relying on any type of single-use products, Cullum said. Follow him on Twitter@edwardhumesand atwww.edwardhumes.com. #7 is the other put-everything-else-that-is-not-#1-6 category. If the demand isnt there, or the quality of the materials post-use is incurably dirty, they end up in landfill or incinerators. Additionally, each time plastic is recycled, additional virgin material is added to help upgrade its quality, so that the recycled product has a fighting chance in the market against new, durable and fresh goods. They accuse the three global beverage titans of unfair business practices, false advertising, consumer fraud, and violations of state environmental marketing claims laws and Federal Trade Commission regulations. Pepsi has set a goal to use 25 per cent recycled content in its plastic packaging, but hasn't said by when. Unlike plastic, glass and metal (including aluminum) can be recycled infinitely without losing quality or purity in the product. It was the plastics industry that offered recycling as a solution.. Accurate information stripped of greenwashing claims, she says, can create demand forand incentives to bring to markettruly recyclable and sustainable products and materials. So, rinse out or fully wash your recycling before throwing it into the bin. In other words, its what makes them soplastic.. She puts the goal of the lawsuits in the bluntest of terms: Like what you read? RECYCLABILITY:Oftentimes we just throw things away into the recycling bin with the full faith that theywill be recycled just because the label says its recyclable. Every time plastic is recycled, the polymer chain grows shorter, SO ITS QUALITY DECREASES. In your dreams, Coca-Cola. You can email story ideas to Emily.Chung@cbc.ca. Recycling is determined by two really important things: numerical classification (#1 #7) only informs you what type of plastic it is. These layers are not visible to the naked eye, making it difficult to understand THAT THE PRODUCT cannot be recycled AS IS. 3. Many large companies have set higher targets for recycled content in their bottles. Most mini water bottles are eight ounceslarger than a four ounce yogurt containerso they are fine to recycle. Long Beachs per resident cost is $28, and the city of Commerce, with a population of 12,000, pays $890,000 a year for litter cleanup, a whopping $69 for each citizen. No two recycling materials recovery facilities (MRF, pronounced "merf") have the same exact equipment, so what you can recycle varies by where your recycling ends up for processing. Many of the goals of the circular economy and plastic pollution legislation have been resurrected as a citizen voter initiative, which will be on the November 2022 election ballot. But plastic rarely breaks. Thanks for signing up for the Green Life email newsletter. So the negative effect on the environment is more fuel-burning, which results in more pollution.. In Taiwan, there are several groups of people who sort trash, remove food remnants from bento boxes, and then send the containers to the recycling factories (since the outside material is generally paper). 2. Oh no! Howe says the company has found bottle-to-bottle recycling reduces energy use by 70 per cent and water consumption during manufacturing by 99 per cent. In Taiwan, melamine can be spotted in night markets (beware pink bowls the next time you want to try some pork over rice (lu rou fan)). But, Schedler thinks bigger beverage companies also need to be held accountable for the waste they generate. After all, at the moment, most PET bottles in North America go directly to landfill. (If those plastics are thrown into landfill and mixed in with other trash, it doesnt matter if theyre compostable or not. Something went wrong. Recycled goods have to compete with new products in the market; who wants to buy something of lower quality? By 2025, Nestle plans to use 15 per cent recycled content globally and 35 per cent recycled content in its PET water bottles, up from the current two per cent and five per cent, respectively. 1996 - 2019 National Geographic Society. "Anytime you can recycle a bottle back, you are gaining another life for that plastic.". Its like eating only half of a chocolate chip cookie we indulge, but not that much. The same piece of plastic can only be recycled about 2-3 times before its quality decreases to the point where it can no longer be used. We go undercover, posing as plastic brokers in Malaysia, to expose the lucrative recycling business. #1 (PET), ex: water bottles highest recycling value; keep out of the sun to prevent toxins leaking into the container (no bueno for your health). Read benefits, ratings and reviews of our spearmint antiplaque waxed dental floss. Additionally, small objects such as water bottle lids, lid rings, and labels are easily separated from trash during collection and can become litter. Single-use plastic water bottles are typically made of either polyethylene terephthalate (PETE, plastic number 1) or high-density polyethylene (HDPE, plastic number 2). Take a look a second look at your recycling this week and be sure that you are recycling water bottles right according to your local rules. Add some good to your morning and evening. A package of new laws seeks to make the state's economy more circular, Whoops! In addition toSierra,Humes has written forLos Angeles, the Wall Street Journal, Forbesand other publications. Worldwide, bottles contain even less recycled content on average. We consumers play a much more critical role than we might imagine-- depending on how we use our products and in what shape we throw them away, determines their value and quality post-use. For many, environmentalism begins with the recycling symbol and ends at the recycling bin. The views and opinions expressed in any guest post featured on our site are those of the guest author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of Tom's of Maine. Government and ratepayers are being swamped, Cullum said. Theweight difference will result in the consumption of more fuel duringtransportation. Heres what really happens and what's needed to boost recycling. ), I use quotations here because its important to know that current biodegradable products can only decompose if they are sent to a special factory, where the temperature and humidity is specially controlled, and lumped together with other compostable plastics. Both are recycled separately. While the outside of the cup is made of paper, inside is a thin layer of plastic. Lillygol Sedaghat is a multi-media environmental journalist and speaker focusing on the intersection among science, systems, and people. A variety of newsletters you'll love, delivered straight to you. Nearly half of Canada's recycled PET in 2015 was sold to the U.S. as "fibre," which means it gets turned into things like carpets, stuffings for pillows and futons and the occasional fleece sweater. For example: glass and metal (including aluminum) can be recycled infinitely without losing quality or purity in the product. Schedler says many large beverage companies want to sign very large, long-term contracts for their plastic. "Fibre has always been the largest application for recycled PET," says Michael Schedler, the Vermont-based plastic recycling consultant who produced the report for the CIF. By that standard, these companies 100% recyclable claims are completely false, said Sierra Club attorney Marie McCrary of San Francisco law firm Gutride Safier LLP. Its claim to fame: its durability and beingdish-washer safe. Only powered by knowledge can we take the necessary actions to transform our relationship with plastic and protect our families, communities & the environment. We know plastic bottles are choking our planet. Many bottles aren't recycled at all, and those that do get recycled usually aren't turned into other bottles or recycled again after that. Thats why the easiest items to recycle are the products made from a single material. Please email, for updates on nature, environmental politics, living well and doing good from, Burned: A Story of Murder and the Crime That Wasn, California Reckons With the Hard Truth About Plastic Recycling, Plastic Bottlers Are Lying About Recycling, 3 Places Where Your Tourism Dollars Support Indigenous People, ICYMI: Yosemite Fire Fights Back, Plastic Fertilizer & Joe Manchin Does It Again. She said the suits are part of a larger campaign to educate consumers and businesses about recycling myths and the true impact of single-use plastic products on the environment. It comforts us with the idea that each one will be recycled over and over again forever. Deposit-return laws: Requiring people to pay a deposit whenthey buy beverage bottles and getting it back when they return it will result in a higher recovery rate and higher-quality, less contaminated plastic, Schedler says. Keep your water bottle intact, not flat. Unfortunately, theres a good chance it wont become even one new bottle. Look up your local solid waste district and study what is accepted and what they expect you to do with your recycling before you haul it to the curb or drop it off. Any steps in that direction are what we need., People want to make consumer choices that are good for the environment, says Hoiyin Ip, Sierra Club California zero waste committee co-chair. Under 60 percent, and all recycling claims have to be qualified on the labelsuch as saying, for example, This product is recyclable only in the few communities that have appropriate recycling facilities.. plastics labeled PLA are made from the sugars in corn or other plant-starches like cassava. First, its important to know that plastics are simply polymers, long chains of atoms arranged in repeating units often much longer than those found in nature., According to the Science History Institute, the length of these chains, and the patterns in which they are arranged, are what make polymers strong, lightweight, and flexible. Here's a closer look at what actually happens to those bottles after use and what needs to happen to boost recycling in the future.
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