Film canisters, candy wrappers, baby diapers and coat hangers are all nonrecyclable products made from plastic, a versatile material that is significantly adding to Lane County’s landfills. And local recyclers say the main problem with plastic is excessive consumption.
“Buy less plastic,” said BRING Recycling Director Julie Daniel. Started in 1971, BRING is one of the nation’s oldest nonprofit recyclers.
The local recycler crushes, sorts, bales and sends to market more than 2,400 tons of cans, glass, plastic, cardboard and milk cartons each year from Lane County. BRING processes recyclables that the public takes to Lane County’s Glenwood Central Receiving Station, located at 3100 E. 17th Ave., and to four public drop sites.
Out of the 250 to 300 tons of plastic BRING receives every year, about 30 percent is nonrecyclable and ends up in the dump, Daniel said.
“The contamination issue in plastic is worse than any other material we process because there are so many different kinds,” Daniel said. “It’s just a fact of the business.”
Local residents’ inability to distinguish recyclable plastic from waste has always been an issue for BRING, Daniel said.
“If it’s made out of plastic, you name it, we’ve received it,” she said.
While most recyclers in the United States accept only two types of recyclable plastic, BRING accepts plastic bottles, tubs and jars in grades one through five, and seven, Daniel said.
Daniel said some common nonrecyclable plastic items sent to BRING include baby diapers, take-out “clam shells,” toothbrushes, pill bottles and plastic bags.
Glenwood Central Receiving Station site inspector Mark Sanders said plastic grocery bags are one of the site’s biggest problems because most consumers don’t know to return them to supermarkets for re-use.
Sanders said people seem to think all plastic is recyclable, but the bigger problem lies in nationwide consumerism.
“People buy way too much plastic,” he said. “They should know that most new products are convenient, but they’re not recyclable.”
Although BRING has tried to better educate Lane County residents about how to recycle plastic, Daniel said most people neglect the rules because they think it’s a nuisance to separate all of their plastic products.
“The public does an OK job,” she said. “But we’ve never been able to switch the perspective.”
Nonetheless, new organizations continue to pop up across the country to accommodate for plastic recycling.
According to the American Plastics Council’s industry Web site at http://www.plasticsresource.com, the number of plastics-recycling businesses has nearly tripled in recent years. More than 1,700 businesses currently handle and reclaim post-consumer plastics to decrease the volume of waste and avoid rising fees at landfills.
To help recycling businesses categorize incoming plastics, the Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. introduced its voluntary resin identification coding system in 1988 at the urging of recyclers nationwide. Hence, plastics are categorized into different grades, which help companies like BRING specify their recycling requirements.
If consumers can avoid plastic, Sanders said, the healthier and more environmentally friendly alternative is glass because it doesn’t transmit chemicals to its contents, and it is recycled through closed-loop circuits, meaning certain glass types are continually used for certain products.
“If I have the choice, I would much rather buy in glass or paper instead of plastic,” he said.
Considering the difficulty of asking people to stop buying plastic, Sanders said consumers should be more aware of buying decisions.
“If you’re gonna buy plastic, check post-consumer content for recycling information,” he said. “Otherwise don’t buy it.”
For more information about BRING Recycling, drop sites and local recycling standards, visit the company Web site at http://www.bringrecycling.org.