Plastic in Berkeley?
This past September(2002), after years of debate, we began collecting plastic #1 and #2 bottles in Berkeley's curbside recycling program. We would like to explain why plastic recycling is challenging, and why only certain types of plastics are collected. After reading this newsletter, we hope that you will try and reduce and reuse plastics whenever possible, and that you will also help us encourage manufacturers to take responsibility for the packaging they create. To begin, we’d like to explain why recycling plastic is significantly different than glass, metal and paper recycling and then we’d like to answer some frequently asked questions.
One factor that complicates plastic recycling is that there are thousands of types of plastic used for consumer packaging today. The plastic industry devised a numbering system to categorize plastic into seven general types. (See sidebar.) Each plastic container must be separated by type before it can be used again to make a new product. Of the seven types, only two kinds, Polyethylene Theraphalate, known as #1, and High Density Polyethelyne (HDPE) - or #2, are typically collected and reprocessed. And of these two plastic types, only narrow-neck bottles are typically purchased by remanufacturers because "bottle-grade" plastic is more easily melted and repelletized and has established uses. Thus, in Berkeley, only #1 and #2 bottles are collected at the curb. (The majority of plastic bottles are made from #1 and #2 plastic.)
Yet, many types of plastic containers remain outside of the recycling loop, such as yogurt cups, plastic bags, styrofoam, and take-out food containers. Even though some of these are labeled #1 or #2 plastics, they cannot be recycled with the bottles. Why? Read on as we answer this and other frequently asked questions.
Why can't my yogurt cup be recycled? It has a #2 on the bottom, just like the milk jug you accept. What's the difference?
That yogurt cup may have a #2 embossed on the bottom inside the well-recognized chasing-arrows symbol, but that doesn't necessarily mean it's recyclable.
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The number on the bottom of the container indicates the type of plastic it's made from. A yogurt cup may be made of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE - #2), the same material as a milk jug or bleach bottle. However, it contains different dyes, plasticizers, UV inhibitors, softeners, and other chemicals required to shape it into a cup. This mix of additives changes the properties of the plastic and makes it incompatible with the plastic used to make bottles.
Adding to the confusion, the plastics industry began using the chasing arrows symbol with their numbering system. This has misled people into believing that any container with a chasing arrows symbol on it is “recyclable.” The industry says it never intended the chasing-arrows symbol to indicate that a container was recyclable or had recycled content; they just thought it was a catchy graphic to highlight the identifying number. Even though the symbol is misleading, the industry has resisted efforts to modify it.
What happens to the plastic bottles that are collected?
Our goal would be to send our plastic bottles back to a manufacturer that could make new bottles out of them. But plastic recycling is still in its nascent stage and few local markets can make our plastic bottles back into bottles. Thus, we end up selling our plastic for end uses such as plastic bags, lumber and fiber for polyester products. Although this is beneficial for helping us reuse the plastic rather than landfilling it, the ideal method would be a "closed loop" recycling process.
“Closed loop” means that materials are made back into the same product they originated in. Glass and metals can be recycled over and over, theoretically staying out of the landfill forever. Paper can be recycled many times over. However most plastic recycling is not yet in the “closed loop” process. For us to achieve "closed loop" plastic recycling, we need the plastics industry to do its part by buying the recaptured plastic and recycling it back into the packaging it started out as. This prevents the mining of natural resources, in this case natural gas, to make more bottles. "Closed loop" recycling is the most sustainable and healthiest form of recycling , and it is why the chasing arrows symbol is commonly used to indicate the concept of recycling.
Is it possible to make a plastic bottle back into another plastic bottle?
Yes. The technology exists, yet packagers apparently are not eager to recapture and use the material. For various reasons, one being cheaper cost, packagers or grocery manufacturers prefer new plastic, (referred to in the industry as “virgin” plastic.) Yet the plastics industry, the American Plastics Council (APC) in particular, has sponsored and continues to sponsor campaigns to convince the public that plastics recycling is easy, economical, and a big success. Between November 1992 and July 1993, the APC spent $18 million in a national advertising campaign to "Take Another Look at Plastics." Yet during this time, while 1 billion pounds of plastic was taken back and recycled, 15 billion pounds was actually produced. The growth of new plastic continues to outpace the growth of plastic recycling by a factor of 14 to 1. The Environmental Defense Fund, which released these figures, found that the small increases in recycling "did not even come close to keeping up with increased production of virgin plastic over the same period." (Environmental Defense Fund, “Something to hide: The sorry state of plastics recycling", October 21, 1997.)
Isn’t the mere fact that a lightweight plastic bottle is replacing a heavy glass bottle an improvement?
While there are benefits to using lightweight plastic for packaging such as increased efficiency in shipping, there are environmental trade offs that come with it. Annually, the plastics industry contributed 14% of the national total of toxic releases to the atmosphere. (Developing Local Markets for Post-Consumer Rigid PET and HDPE Containers in the East Bay, Oakland Recycling Assn., Oakland, CA 1995.) Producing a 16-oz. #1 PET bottle generates more than 100 times the amount of toxic emissions than making the same size bottle out of glass. (CSG/Tellus Packaging Study: “Assessing the Impacts of Production and Disposal of Packaging…” US Environmental Protection Agency and the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and Energy, Boston, MA, May 1992.)
If we cannot “close the loop” when recycling plastic packaging, isn't making plastic into products like lumber good enough?
Though plastic lumber and fiber represent a destination for recovered plastic, and does provide an environmental benefit by temporarily avoiding landfilling the material, it does not lead to a decrease in resource extraction for new plastic packaging. New plastic must continually be made to keep up with the demand for plastic packaging used today for food. If manufacturers reincorporate plastic in their packaging the need for resource extraction will diminish.
Sometimes plastics manufacturers recycle the “clean” plastic that is left over from their production line. This is given as an example of plastic recycling but what is needed most is post-consumer recycling – using plastic collected in curbside programs and recycling centers. The question remains: Will manufacturers incorporate collected plastic into their products rather than continue to produce ever more virgin plastic?
There are some encouraging examples. One destination for both recycled and virgin plastic (but not yogurt cups) is the rug industry, where the plastic is made into polyester fiber. Some rug manufacturers have shown some commendable initiative by taking back their worn carpeting for recycling. A few office furniture companies will also take back their products, (which also have a lot of plastic.) Such actions are part of what is now called Manufacturer Responsibility.
What needs to be done?
#1 Manufacturer’s Responsibility: If you make it you should help take it.
Plastic manufacturers should get directly involved with plastic recycling and help "close the loop" rather than lobbying hard against taking responsibility for their waste or using post-consumer content. We would like to close the loop in recycling plastic by having the bottles we collect recycled in a fashion similar to glass and aluminum. We know that it is technically and legally feasible to do this as other countries such as Germany, through the Greendot program, stipulate that industries make an effort or subsidizes other efforts to recycle packaging materials.
We are making strides as California legislation has been passed to mandate recycled content use in making new non-food packaging. In addition, efforts are underway to expand the scope of recycled content requirements for plastic packaging.
The concept of manufacturer responsibility (also frequently called "Extended Producer Responsibility") has been around for a long period of time. An early example of it is the returnable milk bottle. Extended producer responsibility is based on the premise that the primary responsibility for the waste generated during the production process and after the product is discarded is the producer of the product. The Swedish environmentalist Thomas Lindquist has delineated the concept of extended producer responsibility into five concepts. These concepts are liability, economic responsibility, physical responsibility, informative responsibility and ownership.
Under these conditions the producers of plastic packaging will design their products for continued service instead of disposal. They will build the infrastructure necessary to recycle the plastic back into packaging. They will also exercise care when exporting plastic so that the plastic is recycled under conditions that are not deleterious to the environment or the health of foreign workers. However if the manufacturers of plastic assume responsibility for their material we will have less of a need for export markets.
If manufacturers of plastic packaging assumed responsibility for the material they produce, we will not have to worry about landfilling plastic at all.
Support of Extended Producer Responsibility will include expansion of any recycled content requirements currently in place, pressuring corporations to abide by the concept, choosing green products whenever we can, and using less plastic in our daily lives.Sidebar- What should manufacturers do?
Container makers can make reprocessing easier by limiting the number of container types and shapes, using only one type of plastic resin in each container, making collapsible containers, using water-dispersible adhesives for labels, and phasing out metals, such as aluminum seals. Plastic resin manufacturers can limit the variety of resins within each numbered type of plastic, avoid using pigments, and formulate resins to better withstand post-consumer processing. Both container and plastic resin makers can help develop reprocessing if encouraged to use plastic that is discarded by consumers.
Legal mandates that all containers sold include a percentage of post-consumer material would reduce the amount of virgin material consumed. Although not as effective as other source-reduction techniques, mandating recycled content is one way to implement bottle to bottle recycling and to close part of the materials-flow loop. Worn-out refillable containers could become a source of materials for new bottles.
If container makers were required to use recycled material, designers would be stimulated to create containers that are more recyclable. If resin producers participated in post-consumer plastic processing, plastic materials would be altered to be more recyclable. Thus, less material would end up landfilled.#2 Source Reduction and Reuse
The most direct way to eliminate the problems that stem from producing, using, and disposing of plastic packaging is to reduce the use of packaging. Retailers and consumers can select products that use little or no packaging, and when packaging is necessary, select packaging materials that are recycled into new packaging - such as glass, aluminum, and paper. (See the sidebar for tips on how you can reuse and reduce your use of plastic.) Many product manufacturers, such as soda bottlers, have only recently switched from an easily recyclable container to plastic. If people actually refuse plastic as a packaging material, the industry will decrease production for that purpose, and the associated problems such as energy overuse, pollution, and adverse health effects will diminish. People need to demand action, not excuses. The industry association, the American Plastics Council, does not include source reduction in its charter and systematically overlooked it until recently, when it began promoting lighter-weight packages as a form of source reduction. Yet this "solution" creates the same number of containers. Reducing use lies in the hands of consumers, retailers, and elected officials. (See the “What You Can Do” Sidebar.)
Container reuse has benefits too. Some grocery stores carry soaps, detergents, milk, foods and other items in refillable containers. Since refillable plastic containers can be reused about 25 times, container reuse can substantially reduce the demand for disposable plastic. The direct result is reduced use of materials and energy, with consequently reduced environmental impacts. If reuse becomes a market objective, plastic manufacturers and container designers will consider the service the container provides. Design for service differs sharply from the design for disposal of most plastic packaging today. Container makers can directly participate in developing a refilling infrastructure and encouraging public participation.