What are all the different types of plastics and which can be recycled?
by Jourdan Rassás on August 17th, 2007
Type in “plastic” and your zip-code in the locator box at the top of this page to find out what types of plastic your community accepts, or call your local solid waste or recycling services. Plastics are identified by numbers 1 through 7, and you can find out what kind of plastic you are looking to recycle by identifying this number, usually on the bottom, of the plastic. Some examples of each type of plastic are:
#1 PET (Polyethylene terephthalate): fizzy drink bottles, oven-ready meal trays and water bottles
#2 HDPE (High-density polyethylene): milk bottles, detergent bottles, yogurt and margarine tubs, cereal box liners, and grocery, trash and retail bags
#3 PVC (Polyvinyl chloride): cling film (plastic food wrap), vegetable oil bottles, loose-leaf binders, and construction products such as plastic pipes
#4 LDPE (Low-density polyethylene): dry cleaning bags, produce bags, trash can liners, bread and frozen food bags and squeezable bottles such as mustard and honey
#5 PP (Polypropylene): ketchup bottles, medicine bottles, aerosol caps, and drinking straws
#6 PS (Polystyrene): compact disc jackets, grocery store meat trays, egg cartons, aspirin bottles, packaging Styrofoam peanuts and plastic tableware
#7 Other: three- and five-gallon reusable water bottles, certain kinds of food containers and Tupperware
2:52 pm on October 23rd, 2007
This information is great. If I needed to use a plastic bag for food storage, who manufacturers the most eco-friendly packaging?
3:17 pm on January 20th, 2008
[...] list again and again searching for #5 and #7 plastics, my heart sank. Nobody in town accepted these plastics. How could this be? Each container had the recycle symbol on it - doesn’t that mean [...]
9:57 am on February 29th, 2008
[...] This article explains the number system: Â http://earth911.org/blog/2007/08/17/green-forum-plastic-recycling/ [...]
1:30 pm on April 10th, 2008
[...] earth911 [...]
10:05 am on May 24th, 2008
[...] your community accepts, or call your local … Some examples of each type of plastic are: …http://earth911.org/blog/2007/08/17/green-forum-plastic-recycling/Seven different types of plastic [...]
6:58 am on May 25th, 2008
[...] [...]
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