Seems recycling still has people stymied. Here’s a column from the Era-Banner on recycling plastics that should set you straight.
By: Ellen Mole
All recycling is good. It saves solid waste from going to the landfill and it takes less energy to make something new from something old than to make it from raw materials.
But plastic recycling is perhaps more virtuous than other types of recycling. That’s because plastic is made from oil, which as we all know, is a non-renewable resource in ever-scarcer supply. What’s more, plastic takes a long time to break down in landfill and often releases toxic chemicals if incinerated.
The proposal to reduce plastic bag use in Ontario is great news, because plastic bags cannot be recycled in blue box programs and private recycling collection points cannot handle the volume. But it’s only the tip of the plastic waste mountain.
Fortunately, Aurora’s blue box program expanded its plastics collection a few years ago, making it easier to recycle a wider variety of plastics. Yet confusion still abounds, as shown by those who have taken the Aurora Environmental Advisory Committee’s Blue Box Challenge.
The challenge presents more than 30 household items, some common, some not. Challengers are asked to sort them between the blue box and the garbage. Even those who consider themselves eco-savvy are usually surprised by the number of items they get wrong. And plastic items seem to be the ones most commonly mis-sorted.
So here’s a countdown of the steps for recycling plastics.
Step 1: Check for a number. Most plastic items will have the triangular recycling symbol with a number in the centre. It may be tiny, so keep hunting. If you’ve checked an item thoroughly and found no number, the item must go in the garbage.
Step 2: Lucky number 7. Anything numbered 8 or above has to go in the garbage. Anything numbered 1 through 7 can be rinsed and put in the blue box - with a few exceptions.
Step 3: Check for exceptions. · Motor oil and gasoline containers cannot go in recycling, regardless of their number. They go to the household hazardous waste depot.
· Household cleaner and pesticide bottles can be recycled, even if their contents were toxic, but only if they are empty. If you have leftover contents you don’t want, you should take the container to an hazardous waste depot, rather than dumping it.
· Styrofoam blocks and food containers may be labelled number 6 but they cannot go in the blue box.
· Lids and plastic spray apparatus from containers numbered 1 through 7 cannot be included if they are not themselves labelled with a number. All labelled lids should be placed in the blue box separately from their containers.
· Plastic films, including food wrap, milk bags and shopping bags, cannot go in the blue box.
Ellen Mole is a former member of Aurora’s environmental advisory committee. The committee can be reached through its website at www.e-aurora.ca/eac, or via the newsroom at newsroom@erabanner.com.
