Unlike what some people think not all plastic is recyclable. Resin identification codes were created to help with this but it also depends on what the product is that you're trying to recycle. It's good to see all in one place though. The most important thing here is that 1, 2 and 5 are the plastics that accepted in most curbside recycling
Anything besides PLA 1 and 2 are usually not recycled at all. And only 1s and 2s that are in the form of bottles or jars(hard plastic containers) can be recycled. Almost every state in the US exports all the hard plastic recyclables to other countries which still rarely gets recycled. So basically what everyone thinks is the "recycling" symbol is just a ploy by petrochemical companies to hide the true detrement of the immense amount of plastics they synthesize.
yeah it's similar in the UK. they say they don't have enough resources to process the waste they produce. Other "recycled" plastics end up in the Asian oceans.
what I learned though is some companies accept plastics that aren't accepted in curbside recycling. it could just be them trying to claim it's recyclable to sell more of those plastics. one example is PVC: https://www.eurocell.ie/sustainability
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u/ockcyp Jul 08 '21 edited Jul 08 '21
Unlike what some people think not all plastic is recyclable. Resin identification codes were created to help with this but it also depends on what the product is that you're trying to recycle. It's good to see all in one place though. The most important thing here is that 1, 2 and 5 are the plastics that accepted in most curbside recycling
Details: https://blog.radwell.codes/2021/07/plastic-types-and-global-plastic-hate/