No matter where we shop, the retail landscape is loaded with miscellaneous merchandise that tempts our impulses to gather and to purchase. Designed and packaged to best capture our attention, many goods are marketed in multi-material packaging to provide optimum shelf presence, safeguard product integrity, and reduce in-store pilferage. As a rule, multi-material packaging is not recycling friendly. Often comprised of both recyclable and non-recyclable materials, individual packaging components must be properly separated and sorted prior to reclamation. One such format, the blister pack, is both a merchandising marvel and an environmental nightmare. (more…)

Double, double toil and trouble; fire burn and cauldron bubble”¹.

While this famous phrase may conjure up thoughts of witches concocting a potion, it surely doesn’t represent all the Halloween fun we have carving pumpkins, trick or treating, and dressing up for costume parties. This year Americans will spend $1.8 billion dollars on candy, $1.6 billion dollars on decorations, $2.0 billion dollars on costumes, and almost $350 million on greeting cards. After the holiday, tons and tons of candy wrappers, rotting pumpkins, polystyrene and latex masks, glow sticks, inflatable lawn decorations, and even pet costumes will end up in our landfills. As a nation are we under some sort of “throw away” spell?” (more…)

Americans dispose of billions upon billions of paper, plastic, and foam cups. This year over 58 billion paper cups and 25 billion polystyrene foam cups will pass through our hands and end up in landfills. While the United States is still the world’s largest culprit of disposable cup waste, growing nations like China and India are fast catching up. It’s a cup carrying, cup dumping world! (more…)

Plastic as a Recycling Foundation

Is the time right for MRF World to take plastics more seriously? Should plastics be at the forefront of curbside recycling? Just as co-mingling of recyclables has made collection at curbside easier, the co-mingling of information on recovered materials may provide some answers. Trust me. We are not mixing apples and oranges; the markets do share some interesting parallels. (more…)

If your municipality does not offer curbside pick up for lesser recycled plastics, like PP(#5) or PS(#6), phone the depot’s office and ask where you can recycle them. Many times the town right next to yours accepts different recyclables. If you live in a city, chances are the recycling office can tell you where such plastics may be publicly collected.