Why won't my county recycle yogurt & margarine containers?

Question

We just got nifty new recycling containers along with a pamphlet about the Single Stream (don't have to sort) recycling program in our county. It specifies that we can not recycle margarine and yogurt containers. That seems so strange to me... why not?

Answer 1

It does seem crazy, but alot of places don't do 4's and 5's but research around you, maybe your contribution can be to gather them and drive them to the nearest place that does.  It may be alot to ask, but one giant step for the good.

Also recycle doesn't just mean get rid of , think of reuse, some one said to store food, I call butter and yougert containers my green "tupper"ware lol.  I store the yougert containders under the seat of my vehicle and use them for cups when I travel and buy a two liter to split, or put them in the pic-nic basket with single servings of potatoe salad.  If you think about it those containers with lids can be used in the garden shed, workshop, basement, bathroom.  I only buy yougert with lids, not the foil, the foil cannot be recycled or reused and the container is not any good without the lid.  It makes me feel like I am doing something good.

Answer 2

Looks like you've gotten a lot of great answers on here... I'd just like to add that if they don't recycle them, you can always use them for leftovers, soup, stock, or even a handy reusable container for some chopped up fruit or veggies... a handy snack without wasted packaging.  Really, the possibilities for storage are practically endless!

Answer 3

These are made of many different polymer plastics and often more than one in each. this makes them very difficult to sort. even after sorting this rigid type of plastic is difficult to recycle.

This means that much more resources would be wasted on trying to recycle them than there would be to use fresh resources.

The manufacturers are at fault here, not your local recycling.

Answer 4

Yogurt containers may be polypropylene, a plastic for which there is little market. However, soft margarine is usually packed in HDPE, one of the most-often recycled plastics. Strange to me as well.

Answer 5

That seems very strange. yogurt and margarine containers are made out of plastic, and should be recycleable.

It's possible your county doesn't have plastic recycling, but it could be something else.

I'd call your county offices...get more info.

Answer 6

well maybe because they don't seem to have a use for that kind of plastic but anyways you should go and talk to someone in charge of this and give some ideas

Answer 7

probably because they often are varied material, and also often contain grease, or something else that interferes with the use that the recyclers put the product to.

there's always the question of whether to recycle OJ containers that have cardboard sides, and steel bottoms.  and i don't know the answer.

the problem is, if the material to be recycled is expensive to process, then the program will not be successful.  what you want to do is take as much out of the dump as possible, but at a reasonable cost.  being selective about what you recycle helps that effort.

some people just throw as much as they can into the recycle bin.  this is a bad idea.  typically you pay for trash collection.  recyclers also have to pay for stuff that they cannot use, increasing their cost.  and that cost will be passed back to the town, or to you.

Answer 8

THE SMELL !!

Answer 9

Read this article: http://www.globalwarmingheartland.org/ar...

Then throw them in the trash.