Ideal Bite

I know its not recycling, but there are places out there that benifit from turning in plastics. Your local schools earn money for every grocery bag turned in for them to recycle. Stonyfield Farms partners with a company( I belive it's called recycline) to make razors and other bathroom good out of their yogurt containers. Just take the time to find out where it can be reused, recycle what you can, push your city to do more, and try not to buy over packaged items. Spread the word too. If you can get your friends and family to change the way they shop and they sread the word (and so on and so on), them maybe it will eventually become a part of our culture and retailers will have to change!

I forgot to mention their website - www.ecologiebags.com in case you want to check them out. They've got info on why we should use reusable bags as well - http://www.ecologiebags.com/content.fsp?id=108671

Oh my God!! I can't believe it. I swore off your website years ago when you suggested recycling band-aides. I emailed you and said "Ya know, ya can't recycle band-aides." And your response? "Well the manufacturer says so." So "Welcome Back!!" I'd hoped there would be improvement. Wellllll.... this is what I find on my first day? A blooper of a tip on recycling? And some how it's mixed in with Obesity? Arggg... I personally am a bonefide EXPERT in grabage and recycling. It's my career and it's how I pay my mortgage. Poor Toshio, where did you do your research? Would you call me next time? I'd be happy to reveiw your tips for accuracy. BTW - Bio-plastics do not compost as fast as paper and will NEVER compost in your back yard.

One of the most excellent and informative tips the Bite has had in a while! I've got a pile of empty and, unfortunately, non-biodegradable plastic liquid laundry detergent and fabric softener bottles that have been taking up space in my cellar for quite a while now. They're all #2 (HDPE)plastic. I have no idea where to take them to be recycled as there is no place anywhere near me that takes them. (When you live out in the boonies as I do, you don't have a lot of options.)

Just wondering how to avoid buying stuff packaged in plastic. I wonder why English cucumbers are always sealed in plastic, while the other kind are not? I prefer the English ones - no seeds. I figure I can make my own yoghurt from powdered milk bought in bulk, not so sure about cottage cheese. Where can I buy vegetable oil in bulk? Or is it better to buy it in gallon metal cans from the Italian grocery - are they recyclable? I'm thinking about canning a bushel of tomatoes this year, to avoid buying tomatoes in cans that are lined with plastic. Where can I buy liquid laundry detergent in bulk? I want to use the liquid because I have a front-loader machine; the powder creates too much foam. I've tried cutting down but then my clothes aren't clean enough. I just wish the 'biodegradable' corn-based 'plastic' would take off with retailers, so that we could just toss the containers and not have to worry - trying to avoid plastic is like a full-time job!

I too have to weigh in on this issue since I have been involved in the plastics recycling business for 20 years now... Plastics recycling is all about economics (making $$). That is why bottles are generally recyclable, while tubs (i.e. yogurt containers) are generally not. Look around the grocery store and see where the volumes of plastic containers are (how many soda bottles and milk jugs are sold for every margarine tub?). That is the economics that drives post-consumer plastics recycling. Also, to correct some of your information in this tip: #2 is HDPE, but not all HDPE can be recycled together, as you suggest in the tip (milk jug + trash bag + yogurt cup). W/o getting too technical, a milk jug cannot be recycled w/ a yogurt tub, even tho both may have a #2 on the bottom. The reason is chemistry. The bottle is made from a very viscous HDPE (like molasses), while the tub is made from a very runny HDPE (like water). Mixing the two together yields an HDPE that cannot be molded back into a bottle or a tub! Kinda like baking a cake...you gotta have the right ingredients. It's complicated. The code on the bottom of plastic containers was developed by the plastics industry in 1989 to help recyclers (not consumers) identify which resin type was used to manufacture the item. However, a plastics recycler knows the difference in plastic properties between a blow-molded bottle and a thermo-formed tray and an injection molded tub. And he knows how to process those various HDPE's back into useful products. Caps and bags: most caps are made from polypropylene (#5). Caps are generally a problem in the trammels and pick-lines that sort out materials when they arrive commingled (mixed paper and plastic and steel cans, etc.). The same goes for plastic bags--they clog things up too. Hence they are generally not accepted curbside. But both are very recyclable technically. I used to sell truck loads of bottle caps (post-industrial) to folks that make nursery pots and other commodities and loads of bags to composite lumber manufacturers. I hope that sheds a little light on a complex recycling issue: plastics.

No other updates at this time, I'll keeped hardy ed hardy clothing ralph lauren polo juicy couture my ear to the ground.