Recycling is easy if you do it right.
We see a lot of people who mean well and want to recycle right! Often times, we engage recyclers at our public drop offs who are shocked to hear that plastic bags are incredibly problematic.
Plastic bags in our problematic and here is why:
1) Plastic bags (grocery bags, garbage bags, etc.) are not paper, cardboard, plastic bottles and jugs, metal cans, or glass bottles and jars. OBVIOUSLY! So why would you put other materials in the bins?
2) Plastic bags are a form of plastic film. Most are made of a material called polyethylene, which is manufactured from natural gas and crude oil refining.
3) Plastic bags cause significant problems in recycling sorting facilities known as Material Recovery Facilities (MRF). These bags get caught inside the machines, requiring the system to be shut down to be removed. Companies must have their employees remove the plastic bags from the inside of the machines. This places lives at risk. Is it really worth that?
4) Plastic bags are not biodegradable. Our efforts are to recover materials that can actually be recycled. The only materials that are recyclable are what’s on the labels.
For more information on why plastic bags or plastic in general is not good for you or the environment, check out these links below:
https://www.plasticpollutioncoalition.org/
https://www.earthday.org/a-third-of-the-us-has-laws-preventing-plastic-bans/
