How to Recycle Plastic Bottles Chapel Hill NC

Steps

1. Find out what kind of program your community has for recycling plastics. Many areas do not recycle all kinds of plastic. On the bottom of the bottle there should be a number in a triangle. This is a 'Process Number'. Ask your local Council whether they have facilities in place to recycle plastic of that particular number. They will normally recycle plastic milk bottles.
2. Rinse out the bottles. Fill it with water, swill that around and then empty. Repeat twice. You don't need to bother with soap, as this is just to remove the bulk of the remaining fluid, as this can get smelly in storage.
3. Remove the caps but do not remove labels if you are in ME or HI or another local that pays a 5 cent or similar refund per bottle. In MI there is 10 cent bottle refund. If you are selling them in bulk by weight then remove labels. Caps and glued labels can`t be recycled, so just throw them out.
4. Follow your community`s instructions on what to do with your plastic bottles. Most often there is a special curbside collection for recycling, but otherwise take them to your local Bottle-Bank.

Tips

• There are many different ways that you can recycle plastic bottles. Some are recycled at the curb. Sometimes you have to bring your recyclable bottles to a dumpster or town recycling post.
• Remember to remove all labels and caps from the bottles before recycling.
• Always be responsible for the things in your environment.
• Ask your local council if they also recycle glass. Usually the steps for recycling glass are the same as for plastic.

Warnings

• 40 billion plastic bottles are produced each year in the United States. Two-thirds of them end up in landfills. Avoid this by recycling them.
• You might also want to look into why one should recycle plastic before doing it. Although it seems like it's a very impressive and shocking thing that two-thirds of these bottles end up in landfills, that's not a problem for the environment. Landfills are tied up in giant bags and covered with dirt. The environment is actually hurt /by/ the recycling movement. Considering the money and oil used to transport the items from the source to the recycling center, and then again to the manufacturing plant, then to the stores where these items are sold. Not to mention the greenhouse gasses emitted by the recycling centers and the manufacturing plants- which require a significant amount of power and energy to run. You might feel better about yourself for 'doing a good thing', but it's possible that you could not be considering the process thoroughly enough. Why do you think you can't get money for your plastic bottles like you can with aluminum or glass? Plastic is not profitable.
• Really consider whether unnecessarily poor-rate product coming from a source that takes more energy to make than a new, better quality item is worth your support.
  • However, on the other hand, countries such as China and India purchase much waste plastic produced in the U.S. and other countries because it DOES make sense for their economies (and ecologies). The effort it takes to collect, process, and transport collected plastic bottles makes more sense than the amount of effort it takes to do the same for plastic products made from virgin materials--particularly in growing economies which lack the resources. For some products, the use of recycled material does not affect quality.

Things You'll Need

• Used plastic bottles.

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