Let’s be clear: is this recyclable?
credit: wietse?
Fact: People are lazy.
Fact: I’m a person.
Conclusion: I’m lazy.
When I have a plastic container, I want to dispose of it. I don’t want to throw it in the garbage, but I also don’t want to earn a graduate degree in polymer chemistry just to know whether it’s recyclable in my area. And if you make me think about it too long, I’m going to dump it in the recycle bin and contaminate all of your precious clean recyclables.
‘Round here, we can recycle plastic bottles (the neck is narrower than the body), but we can’t recycle plastic tubs because they’re molded in a different way and the two types of plastic will not melt at the same temperature. I know this, and deal appropriately, but I can almost guarantee you that most people either don’t know it or don’t care. Putting a recycling arrow triangle on the bottom of the bucket with a little number is not going to help things.
So, what’s to be done? What if we make it a little clearer, the way Sustainable Packaging Coalition aims to do.
They’re proposing new labels that lump things in to three categories, not by their makeup, but by their destination:
That’s it. That frozen food package has three types of materials – one that’s “widely recyclable,” one that’s completely non-recyclable, and one that might be recyclable depending on where you live. Easy.
In the end, this is what the consumer cares about, and perhaps it’ll drive the right kind of purchasing behavior. If I have two choices, and one is not recyclable, it may guide my hand to the more sustainable option.
The only downside is that the labeling is currently voluntary. There probably won’t be much compliance from the manufacturers of landfill-destined junk.
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