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About Plastics

Ecology Center began picking up #1 and #2 plastic bottles and jugs on September 1, 2000. (For suggestions on what to do with "unrecyclable" plastics, click here.) 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 selling plastics as an earth-friendly choice but has backed away from using recycled plastics in their products, unlike the glass and metal industries. This prevents a plastics recycling infrastructure from forming. For more information about the problems with plastic, read our latest "Recycled Content" newsletter and see the Plastics Task Force page.