Plastics: Which ones can I recycle and which ones are trash?

By Katie Salinas

For the Reporter

Plastic products are spread throughout almost all aspects of our everyday life. Whether it’s the plastic straw you use to sip your morning coffee or the plastic water bottle you buy at lunch, the average American comes in contact with a lot of plastic every day. Much of it is designed to be used once and then discarded. Clearly, reducing your use of some plastic products such as grocery bags, disposable utensils and plastic bottles is the best choice for the environment.

Reducing waste is always the number one environmental choice. Here are some ways to reduce the amount of plastic in your life.

•Use your own durable bag or tote when you shop, in place of plastic or paper bags.

•Encourage your family to drink free, high quality “Northwest water” right from your faucet instead of purchasing bottled water.

•When picking up take-out, remember to decline the plastic utensils unless you really need them.

•Purchase products in bulk to avoid unnecessary packaging and save money.

•When you can’t reduce your use of plastics, your next best option is to find out if the plastic product you are using is recyclable.

Since there are so many different types of plastics, plastic recycling certainly can be confusing! I encourage you to ignore the recycling symbols on the plastic containers. Not all plastic items with recycling symbols on them can currently be recycled through the local curbside collection program, because there is no market demand for some types of plastics. In addition, the number inside the recycling arrows is not a reliable identifier of whether or not an item is accepted. Although the number identifies the type of resin used in making the product, some items with the same number inside the arrows cannot be recycled together because they have been manufactured using different heating and molding processes. (For example, markets that accept #1 plastic bottles usually don’t want #1 plastic cups.)

To avoid confusion and contamination, ignore the recycling symbols on plastic containers and packaging. At this time, Issaquah residents and businesses can recycle plastic bottles, jugs and dairy tubs through Waste Management’s residential and commercial recycling program. Plastic grocery bags should be bagged together and taken to a local retailer for recycling. If you have other “hard to recycle” items, check out the King County “What Do I Do With?” website, www.metrokc.gov/dnrp/swd/wdidw.

Plastic is a wonderful material for many purposes, but we need to use it wisely.

Do you have a question regarding Reducing, Reusing and Recycling? If so, please submit your full name and question to ksalinas@wm.com and your question may be published in a future edition of the Issaquah/Sammamish Reporter.

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