Better to put non-recyclable plastic in recycle bin or trash?

Question

I'm aware there are some alternatives for non-recyclable plastic as an issue - i.e. not using it, freecycling and re-use. But, in a case where I want to dispose of the plastic and reduce the environmental impact, which of the following is the best option?

1) Put in in recycle bin with other plastics, the logic being that when the plastic recyclers throw it out that they'll put it in a better place than it would be if handled with standard waste - i.e. in an area made for plastics versus mixed in a landfill with other types of trash and possibly finding its way into other areas.

2) Throwing it out with the other trash, the logic being that plastic recycling is very sensitive to costs and value of the resulting plastic, and that mixing of non-recyclable plastics with recyclable ones increases costs and effort as well as decreases re-sell value of the final product(s).

I know this seems like splitting hairs, but either option is easy to pursue, and I'd like to do what's best.

Answer 1

If it's not coded as recyclable then don't put in in the recycle bins.  It won't be recycled if recycling is being done legally by your town.  It'll be sorted out and thrown away.  So you may as well throw it away yourself.  One thing you can do is try to buy fewer items that are plastic, use reusable bags for groceries, and simply do your part.  Know what you your city's recycle policies are... it differs from one city to the next.  Even if it's recyclable plastic, buying less is best.  Instead of all those water bottles, use a filtered pitcher and have a few of the reusable type water bottles handy and fill them from the pitcher.  You'd be surprised how much plastic that saves.

Answer 2

It depends on what object it is that you dont know wheather to put in the trash or recycling. If its sonething re-usable you should just re use it for instance plastic containers or bottles. If its something like packaging then try recycling it but if its not accepted just throw it in the trash.

Answer 3

I actually worked at a Recycling sorter for a little while, so here goes:

If the plastic is non-recyclable (i.e. the resin code on the bottom of the container is anything other than a 1 or 2) it truly is best to throw it away, because the recycling center will throw it away in the same way (as they do all debris that are not recyclable.  There is no such thing as a "safer form of disposal" for non-recyclable plastics)

The only time putting your non-recyclable plastic in the recycling bin might be beneficial for you depends on your type of garbage collection.  If you pay for garbage collection depending on frequency of pick-up, or weight of garbage, then you can potentially decrease both of these factors by giving your non-recyclables to a third party (recycling center) knowing that they will dispose t anyway.  This would decrease your garbage bill.

You could also reuse your plastic containers that are not recyclable (like yogurt containers with lids), or donate them to facilities that can use them (such as some pet shops or wildlife facilities, if they sell bait, or crickets, some shops will accept donations of these containers to put worms/crickets in that are sold to customers).  Most waste management and recycling facilities have information on businesses in the area that accept donated non-recyclable plastic containers.

Always make sure to check with your local recycler to identify which plastics cannot be recycled in your area (as it does fluctuate depending on the sorting facility).  

Most facilities only recycle:

-Plastics with resin codes 1 and 2

-Must be air molded, meaning plastic with 1 or 2 resin code must have a bottle neck...like a detergent bottle or soda bottle.

This means that yogurt containers, even if they are a 1  or 2, cannot be recycled because they have a different melting temperature than air blow molded plastic.

Answer 4

no ..... its  non-recyclable plastic

Answer 5

recycle. 4 all we know they can recycle it. besides they will do something more useful with it than puting it in some landfill.

Answer 6

Most plastics can be recycled, plastic bags though cannot, I'm not sure where your from but in Australia we have plastic bag recycling bins at our shopping centers like Safeway and Cole's.

Also there are recycling plants for Polystyrene which is a product which is extremely bad for our environment but in my opinion are not available to society in which they should be.

I think you should have a look around to see if there are different sorts of recycling plants for different objects, if there aren't any for your material it is probably best to throw it away because at normal recycling plants, if they find even ONE plastic bag it takes 4 hours for the machines to start again and they are just going to throw the bag out so it will probably save people time and money to throw the bag out in the rubbish bin.

Hope this helps

Answer 7

Trash is best.

Recycling plastic is actually pretty complicated. Unfortunatly when you throw them into the recycle bin, and they sort them out and throw them away they go to the same place that your trash goes...a landfill.

The larger problem is that when you throw in a different number plastic, and they miss sorting it out, and it gets into a batch of plastic to be recycled, it can litterally ruin the whole batch of plastic and then none of that plastic gets recycled.

Also a lot of smaller suburbs and towns do not actually sort the recyclables, and if any batch, when delivered, has to much non-recyclable plastic, they will not accept it, or will just accept it and throw it all away.

So please look into your community guidelines for recycling and remove the caps and only recycle the numbers they request.