Oregon daily emerald., April 22, 1999, Page 8B, Image 19

Earth Day
Plastic products are
HANDY, BUT THEY ARE
ANYTHING BUT EASY TO
RECYCLE
By Jack Clifford
Oregon Daily Emerald
^ | % here’s a scene in “The Graduate”
when a man corners Dustin Hoff
JL man’s character at a party. The fami
ly Mend, attempting to give good financial
advice to the recent college graduate, of
fers a one-word investment plan: “Plas
tics,” he says.
When that film was made 32 years ago,
his tip made people laugh. Nowadays,
plastics cause a huge headache, especially
for local recyclers.
“Plastic is a nice material to package a
product in because it’s lightweight and it
doesn’t easily break,” says Brian Fuller,
spokesperson for the Oregon Department
of Environmental Quality. “Those same
qualities make plastic hard to recycle.”
About six years ago, with financial sup
port from the American Plastics Council,
Lane County was able to increase its col
lection base to include rigid plastics, says
Tanya Baker, Waste Reduction Specialist
with Lane County Waste Management.
Most communities limit plastic gathering
to milk jugs and pop containers.
However, because there are so many dif
ferent types and kinds of plastics, she con
tinues, the public can become confused
about what is recyclable and what is not.
Almost all plastic containers are
marked with the “chasing arrows” sym
bol, which surrounds a number between
one and seven. Contrary to popular belief,
the emblem does not necessarily mean
BRING Recycling Center manager Julie Daniel wades through a mountain of plastic, some of which cannot be recycled.
Amanda Cowatt/Emerald
1
that the particular item is recyclable. In
stead, the plastics industry uses the num
ber inside to identify the kind of resin in
the object.
“How’s that for throwing a loop into the
system?” asks Baker, with a bit of laughter.
“People call me and ask, ‘Why can’t I recy
cle this laundry basket? It has the arrows
on it.’ Really, it’s an arbitrary designation
of what kind of plastic that is.”
Another problem with plastics arose last
summer. Asian companies are a key mar
ket for selling the rigid plastics, or num
bers three through seven on the item.
When the Asian economy crashed a year
ago, no one was buying the material.
Most of the excess was in the form of
food containers, such as salsa or yogurt
tubs, which cannot be recycled back into
food containers due to Food and Drug Ad
ministration rules. The choice came down
to implementing a slight increase for col
lection, then warehousing the plastics,
while waiting for the market to bounce
back or just cutting out the problematic
items.
“We felt that because the citizens of
Lane County have a very high recycling
ethic and value the program, they would
rather pay a small fee than lose the pro
gram,” Baker says.
So local recycler BRING Recycling is
storing the plastics until a suitable solu
tion can be found. More than any of the
other plastics, number six, or polystyrene,
is the bane of the lot. Polystyrene is most
commonly used in meat packages or as to
go boxes from restaurants.
“Many years ago, when the recycling
program began here in Eugene, we were
receiving five to seven cents a pound for
that material,” says Julie Daniel, spokes
woman for BRING. “For the last three
years, we have received nothing for the
material at all, and we covered the cost of
shipping it to market.
“Currently, it is at negative 15 cents per
pound, which means that each ton of ma
- | ■ i
terial costs $300 [to remove]. For us to
send an average load to market would cost
us $6,000, plus the cost of shipping.”
Overall, the price for plastics has gone
down, Daniel adds. Whereas high-densi
ty polyethylene, a plastic used in mak
ing milk jugs, once reaped 18 to 21 cents
per pound, it now fetches just six cents
per pound. Plus, Daniel points out that
since the public rarely appropriately
separates the various plastic containers,
they must be sorted on-site, adding even
more cost.
Those struggling with the plastic prob
lem ask the public to be more proactive.
“Bring your own canvas bags to the gro
cery store, buy bulk, choose glass jars over
plastic ones or write businesses and ask
them to reduce their waste,” Fuller says.
Just keep in mind that recycling is not
the “end-all solution to waste manage
ment,” Baker sums up. “We actually have
to look at how to reduce and reuse things,
then recycle what’s left over.”
B
005473
By purchasing products made from recycled materials, you
help to create markets for the materials you recycle.
Shop smart,
Buy Recycled,
Sponsored by the University of Oregon Environmental Issues Committee
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