Recycle – should we, or shouldn't we?

Recycling
Written By Frances McChesney

In answer to those questions: 

  • No, I don’t recycle the single use plastic. 

  • More than 90% of the plastic does not get recycled even if you put it in your recycling bin.

  • Plastic packaging is not recyclable, but it can often be reused.  Try taking those packing beads or airpacks to your local shipping/mailing store.

  • If it can’t be reused, I throw it in the garbage.

    What convinced me to stop putting what little plastic I still get into the recycle bin was when I learned that because plastics are made with dangerous chemicals, the new items made from used plastic are also unsafe.  As I read in an article in the journal The Conversation: “More than 13,000 chemicals are used in the production of plastic materials and products.   . . . Thousands of these chemicals have dangerous properties.  The health risks of others are unknown.”  https://theconversation.com/dangerous-chemicals-found-in-recycled-plastics-making-them-unsafe-for-use-experts-explain-the-hazards-220498

Cafeteria Culture, an organization we’ve often shared about, has published a scientific article called “Plastic is a Hazardous Substance” explaining the health impacts of plastic.(https://drive.google.com/file/d/10jAny6MRLG79en9L7zJ1ZFcwAVWs7lvX/view

We do all we can to reduce our use of single-use plastic.  What plastic I do get I throw in the garbage, being careful to wrap small plastic items in a paper bag so that it doesn’t come loose.  What are those small plastic items? – bottle tops, the plastic wrapped around the top of containers (why – I don’t know), the zip ties, etc.

We McSisters have been very conscientious over the years about recycling plastic – all the yogurt cups, water bottles, liquid clothes detergent, dish soap, juice containers – thinking we were doing a good thing for the environment.  As you can probably guess, we have greatly reduced our use of single-use plastic as we’ve learned, and shared, about the devastating impacts of plastic on our health, our environment, our vulnerable communities, and our oceans.  We’ve shared with you many alternatives to single-use plastic, and we keep trying more products.  Sometimes, with all our efforts and good intentions, we still end up with some single-use plastic.  And we wonder – what should we do with it?

We often get asked these questions? 

  • Should I recycle the single-use plastic? 

  • What happens to the plastic bottles, yogurt cups, plastic bags our newspaper appears in, and bread bags if we put them in the recycle bins? 

  • Can we recycle that plastic packaging that our online order came in that claims to be recyclable?

  • Should I throw it all in the garbage?

We’ve been researching these questions and have discovered that very little is actually recycled – only about nine percent, if that.  Why is that?  There is too much of it.  Plastic is made with so many different formulations that can’t be combined. Facilities are not available.  Even if the plastic is recycled, the recycling processes create microplastic particles that discharge into the wash water and mobilizes hazardous chemicals used to make the plastic.  https://www.beyondplastics.org/publications/us-plastics-recycling-rate

https://www.sciencefocus.com/comment/reuse-plastic-pollution

What can you do?

Choose to use less plastic.

Dispose of what plastic you do have safely.

Read up on the recycling problem.

Urge our legislatures to adopt legislation to end our over the top use of plastic.

 

Frances McChesney
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More about plastic and our health.