Sandhill Plastic

5 Misconceptions about Plastics Recycling

# 1: Plastics that a consumer recycles get recycled. No, Not necessarily. Collecting plastic containers at curbside fosters the belief that, like aluminum and glass, the recovered material is made into new products.

# 2: Curbside collection, or collection anywhere, will reduce the amount of plastic landfilled.  Again, not necessarily.

# 3: A chasing arrows symbol means a plastic container is recyclable. The arrows aren’t always correctly stated. Every plastic container is marked with the chasing arrows symbol. The only information in the symbol is the number inside the arrows, which indicates the general class of resin used to make the container.

# 4: Using plastic containers saves energy. When you work the numbers, making plastic containers uses as much energy as making glass containers from virgin materials, and much more than making glass containers from recycled materials. Using refillables is the most energy saving.

# 5: Our choice is limited to recycling or wasting. Actually, reducing use is preferable for many types of plastic and is easy.  Opportunities include using refillable containers, buying in bulk, buying things that don’t need much packaging, and buying things in recyclable and recycled packages.

Sandhill Plastics is using the above for informational purposes only.