Moreover, there are 2 types of plastics: thermoset vs. Thermoplastics are plastics that can be re-melted and re-molded into new products, and therefore, recycled. It was the plastics industry that offered recycling as a solution. Feel good once you finish your Starbucks and place that innocuous paper cup in the recycling bin?
While the outside of the cup is made of paper, inside is a thin layer of plastic. The PP Polypropylene film protects the liquid from seeping into the paper and thereby burning you and keeps your warm drink from cooling too quickly. Because there are two different materials, the cups cannot be recycled unless the materials are separated, which is impossible to do by hand and requires a special machine.
Coffee cups are similar to the packaging enclosing snacks like health bars. Both are multi-layered, with each layer serving a particular purpose, e. This kind of design, however, makes recycling the product super difficult, especially since the layers are often very thin and stacked tightly on top of one another. Got a little pizza sauce and cheesy goodness left on that pizza box? In order for plastics to be transformed into recycled goods, they must be of decent quality.
So what to do? Wash your plastics after every use, so they have the chance to be recycled into new material. Remember, recycled materials i. In Taiwan, there are several groups of people who sort trash, remove food remnants from bento boxes, and then send the containers to the recycling factories since the outside material is generally paper.
Some recycling factories then take these goods and wash them multiple times before they are cut, reheated and transformed. The same piece of plastic can only be recycled about times before its quality decreases to the point where it can no longer be used.
You read that right. Unlike plastic, glass and metal including aluminum can be recycled infinitely without losing quality or purity in the product. Recycling facilities can have problems with Ingeo items, so it is important to separate compostables from recyclables into "clean" waste streams. Because Ingeo and PET mix about as well as oil and water, recyclers consider Ingeo a contaminant and compost facilities have a hard time cleaning PET out of the compost. Are your hot cups and soup cups recyclable?
Today, very few communities recycle paper hot cups of any type. They are certified to be commercially composted after use.
If you are not lucky enough to have a commercial composter in your area, these cups should be sent to the landfill. These cups are not compostable, and because of the challenges mentioned above with recycling paper hot cups, they are not recyclable in most communities either.
Eco-Products is participating in industry initiatives aiming to increase the recyclability of hot cups and other foodservice packaging. We hope that one day soon, diverting these products from the landfill will be the norm and not the exception. Login Distributors Only. The answer is: it depends! Here at Eco-Products, we look at our products from a life cycle perspective. Our cups have a beginning, middle and end of life.
For our cold cups, some of them have great beginning of life attributes, while the others offer great end of life benefits. However, a key piece of the environmental success of our products depends on you.
Simply choosing Eco-Products over conventional products helps drive markets, keep good companies like us in business and show the industry where consumers are motivated. If that is all you can do right now, that is a great start! Some of you can do more by composting or even recycling where accepted some of our products.
The best environmental solution is the one that works with you. Featured 16 oz. Featured 20 oz. Featured oz. Dome Lid for Corn Cups. Featured 10 inch Round Sugarcane Plate. Featured Medium Square Sugarcane Plate - 8". Featured 12 oz. Sugarcane Bowl. Featured 8" x 8" x 3" 3-Compartment Clear Hinged Clamshell. Rectangular Deli Container. Round Deli Container. Featured 24 oz. Featured 7" Wooden Stir Sticks. Featured 7. Featured Large BioShopper. Featured 5 oz. Featured oz Flat Lid for Corn Cups.
Featured 8" x 8" x 3" 3-Compartment Hinged Sugarcane Clamshell. Featured 4 oz. Sugarcane Portion Cup. Featured 3 in. Sandwich Wedge Container. Featured Large Sushi Container. Previous Reports. This is the main reason why recyclin of plastics to materials has been limited, as reported by Renee. What is the alternative?
All of these routes require thermal treatment of plastic wastes. Wow, thats really cool. Talk about reusing recycling a product. Im sure there are a number of cost efficient ways to reclaim the plastic, and turn it [reused plastic] into anything you want. I think that subsidies from the government that help these types of programs just end up hurting the program in the end. The subsidies keep the costs high. Thats what i think. We are so used to taking and using plastic for granted without thinking of the detrimental effects that it has on society and the environment.
We know the many benefits of recycling something old to make something new, so we encourage the idea of reusing and recycling, instead of replacing.
Plastic can be recycled into diesel. It can be used to produce oil. It can be used to construct roads. Plastic is poison for our environment. Plastic takes one thousand years to bio-degrade in the landfill and out of the Step three: Start a petition asking my local […].
We wants to dedicated ourselves to creating safe alternatives to plastic products. There is no definitive number on how much plastic is floating in the ocean.
The State of the Planet blog from Earth Institute at Columbia University puts the number in the hundreds of million of tons, […]. And what of the energy and CO2 costs of transporting plastic, which is more or less evenly distributed everywhere people are? There was a huge study in Germany that was published last year, that looked at all of these issues, and they found that virgin plastic bags were superior to bioplastic and recycled plastic bags, in terms of environmental impact.
With a little of an additive, plastic could be made biodegradable in landfills — which would provide methane. Great research and article. Glad to see you cover this topic. I think that anything that keeps waste out of landfill is a blessing! We are in the construction industry, and are faced with waste everyday. We take great pride in re purposing whatever we can.
This is a great article, thank you! I am all for cleaning up our environment. However, singling out one source of plastic waste is absurd! The next time you are at the checkout line or strolling through the aisles of your local supermarket or convenience store, just stop for moment and take notice of all the items, wrapped, packed, stacked and labeled with plastic.
This includes items packaged within a paper box. Think about it. A plastic shopping bag ban is a total waste of time! The only sane option should be an enforceable plastic bag recycling program.
Thank you for taking the time to read my post. Has anyone thought of taking all this plastic and dump it into a volcano? At the same time we could be creating a new job and pay someone to take this plastic to a volcano. After all, the volcano put this substance back the earth. I agree with Edgar Allen…. Hm what if we do put all the plastic in a volcano?
Will it really work? Is it safe enough? Is it realistic enough? What if people accidentally fall in there? Pull the other one its got bells on.. Pennsylvania-based EcoClean Burners, Inc. Based on technology developed in South Korea, the process produces no harmful emissions and uses fuel that is 30 percent cheaper than oil or natural gas.
The real problem is that in over 2 years only around 20 people have bothered to comment on this article. Chances are that the number of people that actually care are in too short of numbers. Our childrens children will be the ones to suffer but lets face it how many people would be willing to give up the comforts of today. Take climate change our government just cut from the budget millions of dollars that were the help things but instead big biz has opted to take their tax breaks with that money instead.
Programs like the ones mentioned here are great but there is not enough money it to make anyone able to change things to better the environment. Kinds of plastic waste has been a problem in our dailylife. Thanks to the technology development, now we have the ability to reuse or transfer it other useful products for us. One of popular tech is pyrolysis.
That will need all kinds of machines to make a pyrolysis plant to make it possible. It cost a lot, but it is still profitable. Hope gov can spend more money to support this type of enterprise. I completely agree with Lynda. At the same time, I think that almost everyone agrees that it is a problem and will likely throw money at it.
The key to global recycling success are crowds: we have to introduce them that recycling make really sense. They think that all the garbage goes together again, finally. In the US, separated trash never goes together again. Plastic is forever! The plastic is something which should be recycled because it could lasts really forever. We should learn from the zero waste people how to reduce the plastic waste to minimum. Recycling plastic bags and film packaging is important due to the high cost of disposing of it and its impacts on the environment when it becomes litter.
I thought that this article was amazing, lost of verry important informatio. So from now on we should only reuse shopping bags. Now we just need to tell the rest of the world that.
This machine work in golden principal of waste plastic material. Near me has technique but not way but i know it is need of feature. We are taking that would be buried plastic and turning it into picnic tables, park benches, and landscaping timbers.. No more rot, no more landfill! It would also make it easier to store and easier for companies to reuse who have the machinery to recycle it.
Henry Ford used soy beans once in making automobile parts. We need to look out side of the box. We depend too much on oil which is not an unlimited resource. Has anyone ever worked with reducing bio waste?
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