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"ALL PLASTIC BOTTLES" 

-Recycling Program-

We can only take Plastic bottles: soda bottles, water bottles, milk bottles, etc… If it is a bottle, we will take it. If it is not a bottle, we cannot take it.

Key Benefits To An "All Bottle Program"

The reason for this is that we can only process and sell #1 and #2 plastics (PET and HDPE). These plastics are the only ones that we can feasibly process, when considering our space, labor and quantity of incoming materials. We have to collect 40,000 pounds of a single product in order to sell it; we currently have nine categories that we collect and have to store until we have 20 tons of that product. That is a lot of storage space! Two categories of plastics are all we can manage.

Since 95% of plastic bottles are #1 or #2s we can simplify the collection and sorting process for everyone, by accepting the 5% waste factor, and just say we collect all “plastic bottles only”.

  On the other side, 95% of all other plastic items are not PET or HDPE plastics. We would have to throw these items away in our garbage at an expense to the center. If I can eliminate most of these plastics that we do not take, we could cut our monthly trash bill in half, which is the goal of any department head, to minimize expenses. Therefore, we can again simplify what we—do not take—by just saying we take “Bottles Only”.

  Another issue is that the Recycling Numbers assigned to many of the other plastic products other than bottles are not accurate. Due to their manufacturing processes and differing formulas, they contaminate the PET and HDPE mixtures. Even though they may say #1 or #2 plastics, the vendors for HDPE & PET plastics do not want them.

Click on pictures to enlarge

The PET Bottles are separated on the conveyor belt and  placed in our storage bin waiting to be bailed, Note that there are no other plastic items in this pile other than bottles!

HDPE Bottles, can you find something that does not belong in this pile?

It takes all the bottles in the plastic bottle PET or HDPE storage bin to make one of these bales!

Please no Motor oil containers!

Motor oil  contaminates the plastic formula when melted down for recycling. Therefore, all plastic bottles that have had oil in them are garbage unless they are thoroughly washed out first. We do not have the capability to wash these containers out at the recycling center and we would not know whether you had done so. Our sorters will place all oil containers directly in the garbage as they are sorted. So, please do not send or bring oil containers.

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Last modified: February 28, 2007