This month recycling is top of mind because we were notified
that we will switch to no-sort recycling. I'm excited about that because I
think it will bring a lot more people into the recycling process who may
not have done it before.
This one-sort recycling means a change for
kitchen design as well - no need for separate
containers for paper, glass, plastic etc. Remember when we had to
separate aluminum cans from tin/metal cans? We are moving in the right
direction…
Buying products that are wrapped in PVC --you know, the ones
you need a scissors to open and even then you can cut yourself on it--always
irritates me because I have to throw the blister packs away. I like to
recycle whenever possible, but according to this article recycling this type of
plastic if one quarter of one percent - that's hard to fathom. Here's more
information I found on a website called www.earth911.com
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| Photo credit - Flickr - Incurable hippie |
PVC (Polyvinyl
chloride) is considered a difficult and expensive material to recycle. For
this reason, much of it ends up in landfills.
Where
You’ll Find It:
- Blister packs
- Clamshell containers
- Bags for bedding, medical shrink wrap, deli and meat wrap
- Pipes, siding, window frames, fencing, decking and railing
Why They
Use It: PVC is very strong and high-impact. Along with its brilliant
clarity, plastic #3 is also resistant to grease, oil and chemicals.
The Lowdown on Recycling: PVC is not commonly
recycled or recyclable, nor is it biodegradable. More than 7 billion pounds of
PVC are thrown away in the U.S. annually, and only 18 million pounds – barely
one-quarter of 1 percent – is recycled. The relatively new mechanical recycling
process known as Vinyloop® technology, developed by Solvay Research &
Technology, allows the complete separation of PVC material from the non-PVC
materials that are often combined with it.
Need-to-Know Info:
1. PVC requires 20 percent less energy to produce than other
plastics. It is also thought to save on fossil fuel use, as its principal raw
material (nearly 60 percent) is chlorine-derived from common salt.
2. To make vinyl products flexible, controversial
plasticizers known as phthalates are used, accounting for nearly 90 percent of
total phthalate consumption. This translates into more than 5 million tons used
for vinyl every year.
3. Energy-intensive chlorine production for PVC consumes an
estimated 47 billion kilowatt hours per year – almost equal to the annual total
output of eight medium-sized nuclear power plants.
