Plastic Recycling

The Ecology Center began picking up #1 and #2 plastic bottles and jugs on September 1, 2000. However, we continue to encourage people to avoid buying plastics whenever possible since they are not recyclable in the same way that glass, metals, and fibers are. Those materials can be recycled over and over, theoretically staying out of the landfill forever. Plastics, at best, can be turned into only one other product, which must be landfilled at the end of its life. The plastics industry has put a lot of money into marketing plastics as an earth-friendly choice, but has backed away from actually using recycled plastics in their products, unlike the glass and metal industries. This prevents a plastics recycling infrastructure from forming.

Learn More About Plastics

To learn more about issues related to plastics recycling, click here.

For suggestions on what to do with "unrecyclable" plastics, click here.

For more info on plastics in general, visit our Plastics Task Force pages.