Recycling plastic containers has become easier.  All you have to do is think bottles.  No longer is it necessary to decipher those hard-to-read numbers on the bottom.  If it’s a plastic bottle with a top that takes a screw-on cap, and is smaller at the top than at the bottom, you can toss it into the recycle container.

Trying to differentiate by numbers has been confusing because there are 50 different types of plastic labeled from No. 1 to No. 7. What’s more,  No. 1 on a soda bottle is not the same kind of plastic as a No. 1 on a microwave tray.

Ninety-five percent of all plastic bottles produced are either No. 1 (PET) or No. 2 (HDPE).  PET is recycled into new fleece wear, carpeting and pillow stuffing.  HDPE is used to make bottles for plant pots or cleaning products.  Look for these recycled end-products when you shop.

Recycling industries have to operate at 100 percent efficiency to be profitable. There is a critical shortage of No. 1 and No. 2 bottles. Contaminating a pile of bottles with things like yogurt cups can make the whole pile unusable.

Plastic bottles reside not only in the kitchen.  Look for milk, soda and peanut butter bottles in odd places like the car or family room. Plastic bottle treasures can live in the garage, bathroom (shampoo, mouthwash), under the sink (detergent bottles), in the pantry or laundry room.

It IS safe to re-use water bottles, even if they have been frozen.  An e-mail hoax convinced many that this was an unsafe practice, but it has been refuted by the FDA and the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.  Once the bottles are washed and dried, so bacteria don’t proliferate, you can use them until the end of their life-span—and then you know what to do with them!

Also, plastic bags can be recycled at Albertson's or Wal-Mart.

Mereth Meade
Member, Mountain Recyclers and
Colorado Association of Recycling