07 July 2008

plastic pile

I have a confession. I have a large collection of plastic that can't be recycled in NYC. Mostly #6 (PS or polystyrene) and some #5 (polypropylene) objects are piling up in our "office" (aka, second bedroom; aka, junk room). Coffee cup lids, containers that held mushrooms, yogurt containers -- I can't get myself to throw them away. I have a big project in mind for them, but yesterday I was thinking, maybe there's a place I can send this stuff to be recycled.

And I found out today, there is! Thanks to Ideal Bite, I found out that Park Slope Food Co-op in Brooklyn will be happy to take my #5s and some of my number #4s (although these aren't as common) to send to Recycline. As I've mentioned before, they have a partnership with this maker of Preserve products. So the plastics that were destined to go to the dump (or the ocean) are now the stuff of toothbrushes, razors, and other household goods.

Now what to do with those #6s?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey L,
maybe you can help me understand how to determine what number my plastic is?
A

Liz said...

Sure. In most cases, just flip over the container. There should be a little stamped impression of a triangle with a number in it. That's your plastic number. Most one-time-use water bottles are #1, while most yogurt containers are #5. Often, beauty products and medicine are in #2 containers. Here's a website that lists all of the types of plastic, shown in their triangle.
http://www.ides.com/resources/plastic-recycling-codes.asp