What are all the different types of plastics and which can be recycled?
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
wildernessgourmet
posted on October 23rd, 2007 at 2:52 pm
This information is great. If I needed to use a plastic bag for food storage, who manufacturers the most eco-friendly packaging?
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posted on January 20th, 2008 at 3:17 pm
[...] 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 [...]
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posted on February 29th, 2008 at 9:57 am
[...] This article explains the number system: http://earth911.com/blog/2007/08/17/green-forum-plastic-recycling/ [...]
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[...] earth911 [...]
plastics types examples
posted on May 24th, 2008 at 10:05 am
[...] your community accepts, or call your local … Some examples of each type of plastic are: …http://earth911.com/blog/2007/08/17/green-forum-plastic-recycling/Seven different types of plastic [...]
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julie
posted on November 24th, 2008 at 4:54 pm
The Green guide website answers just this question (url provided). I started looking at this problem a while ago, and came to the conclusion that the best thing to do is reduce consumption of plastic containers and serviceware. Our lunches are now packed in glass that we either bought, or reuse glass jars from preserves. They last longer, are safer, and if you want to get rid of them, someone is likely to want them (freecycle or craigslist). It is possible to avoid most of the plastic that comes our way, and I am sorry to say that any initiative to advertise the pitiful plastic recycling rates out there, are just meant to mask what a damaging and obnoxious material it is, and how unworthy it is to use it for mundane purposes, the exception being medical uses of course. One more thing: plastic is very unlikely to ever get recycled, but DOWNCYCLED, which means it will be made into a lesser product which will eventually break and go pollute rampantly for hundreds of years. If you want to make an effort, remove yourself from the plastic consumer group: don’t add to the problem.