By understanding the meaning behind the recycle symbols, you’ll be better equipped to help reduce waste, limit your carbon footprint, and help the environment.
With this course you’ll learn:
• Why recycling matters
• What do the numbers inside the recycle symbol mean
• What gets recycled and what doesn’t
• Tips to make recycling fun for your family or workplace
• Want to recycle more? You can recycle these too
• FREE one page PDF that you can print out and post on your recycle bins as a reminder of what goes in and what doesn’t.
2. In our world of “eco-friendly
everything”, you are constantly
bombarded with ways you can
make a difference. It can
sometimes be overwhelming to
wade through it all and decide
where you can make effective
change for you and the lives
surrounding you.
3. REDUCEBecause of your new-found awareness after completing
the course, you will probably reduce the amount of single-
use plastic you use everyday.
5. RE CYCLEYou will definitely know more about recycling than
most people after you complete this course. And I
hope you share your knowledge and motivate others
to mimic your efforts.
6. UP CYCLE
You will learn what “upcycling” is and how you can
participate
7. ZER0WASTEAnd finally, you will learn about zero waste.
How it helps our planet and how you can start taking steps
towards it.
8. If you are struggling with what items you can recycle, then this
course is for you
15. “Can I recycle this?”
We tend to throw a lot of trash in the recycling bin, in the hope
that some unknown person, somewhere else, will sort it out.
Recyclers call this aspirational recycling, or wish-cycling.
16. %
RECYCLED
We also don’t recycle as much as we
could. For example, plastic bottles
are a highly desirable product for
recyclers, but just about 1/3 find
their way into a recycling bin.
Less than 10% of plastic is recycled
17. Can I RECYCLE this?
Your recycling bin is part of the
solution, but many of us are
confused about what we should be
putting in there.
What’s recyclable in one community could be trash in another.
Asking what can be recycled in your area is one of the smartest
things you can do to ensure that you are diverting as much of your
business’s waste from landfills as possible.
18. iRecycle
Choose a material (like plastic, paper, batteries, paint, electronics,
etc), find local options to recycle it, contact your local recyclers
and map a route to the location.
19. Recycling is a business with a product that is vulnerable to the
ups and downs of commodities markets. Sometimes it’s cheaper
for packagers to make things out of raw, virgin plastic than it is
to buy recycled plastic.Which is discouraging.
23. Many people forget
that recycling is a
business.Whenever
I’m asked if a certain
item can be recycled,
my standard response
is that almost
anything is recyclable,
so long as there is an
end-buyer for it.
24. This end-buyer must be located a reasonable distance from the
materials, because if they are too far away, the cost of
procuring the materials will likely be prohibitive, and there’s a
good chance that the company wishing to make the purchase
will be able to procure the same type of raw material from
somewhere closer to them.
25. While the majority of single-stream Materials Recovery Facilities
(MRFs) operating in the United States are automated, most have
a manual sorting component that is largely fueled by a need to
sort plastics.
26. Buyers of post-consumer
polypropylene usually want it in
baled form—it can be chopped,
washed, heated, and pelletized so
that it is ready to make into new
products such as reusable lunch
boxes, yogurt containers,
margarine tubs, legos and soft drink
bottle caps.
27. 0.04
lbs
= .13¢/lb. $15/hr.
they would need at least 2,875 polypropylene cups to
pass along the conveyor per hour in order to justify the
hiring of an extra person to manually sort it at fifteen
dollars an hour.
If one polypropylene cup weighs
0.04 lbs, at current market
prices for polypropylene
(0.13$/lb
28. Recycling alone can’t solve the waste conundrum, but
many believe it’s a vital piece of an overall strategy,
which also includes reducing packaging and replacing
disposables with reusable materials.
31. We have all done it: a greasy pizza box, a disposable coffee
cup, the odd plastic bag. Sometimes, we want things to be
recyclable, so we put them in the recycling bin.
Waste managers often call this wishful or aspirational
recycling. But, unfortunately, putting these objects in with
the rest of the recycling can do more harm than good. Rules
differ in every municipality.
32. Too many of these items will contaminate a batch of recycling.That
means waste managers might not be able to find buyers for the
materials — especially now that China, one of the world’s main
importers of recyclable waste, has said it will reject shipments that
are more than 0.5 percent impure. Contaminated loads could be
sent to the landfill instead.
33. So how can we do better?
There are a couple of ways to figure
out how to recycle the right way.
Are you wondering about the little
recycling numbers on your plastics?
They identify what kind of plastic the
container is made of and can help you
figure out if the plastic can be
recycled at a particular facility.
34. Time for a big
debunk. Many
people believe this
instantly
recognizable
triangle icon
indicates that an
item is recyclable,
or that it is made
from recycled
materials.
Actually, what is
known as the
“chasing
arrows” icon is
“essentially clip-
art”.
35. There is no oversight for how the recycling icon is used. As a
result, it is often misused on packaging to make it look like
something is recyclable, when in fact it’s not.This misleads the
consumer and causes them to throw that packaging in with
the real recyclables.
36. The numbers
inside the
arrows, from
one to seven,
were developed
by the plastic
industry in the
late 1980s.
Misleadingly,
not every
number may be
recyclable.
Look on the bottom
of package to find the
recycling number
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44. and a recycling nonprofit
calledGreenBlue as a way
to provide clear
instructions to consumers
about packaging
recyclability.
The How2Recycle
label was created by
the Sustainable
Packaging
45.
46. Whether you’re working
with acrylic plastic or
polypropylene, being
mindful of the small
numbers within the
“chasing arrows” symbol
can help you better
understand what type of
plastic you are using and if
it is recyclable.
47. Find your recycling rules
online.
Just google
“Your city or county
Recycle Rules”.
49. While it’s
important to
know what can
be recycled in
your part of the
world, it’s
equally
necessary to
find out what
can’t be
recycled
through your
curbside
recycling
program.
Here is an
overview of
what usually
can’t be recycled
curbside.
50.
51.
52.
53.
54. Many grocery stores collect plastic
bags, and some city recycling
programs offer plastic bag pick-up or
drop-off programs.
55.
56.
57.
58.
59.
60.
61.
62.
63.
64. So, what happens to the stuff you recycle?
Beverage companies tend to use only a small amount of
recycled plastic in their new bottles (if any), because
unlike virgin plastic, 100% recycled plastic is not
translucent. More likely, your plastic bottle is being
turned into an item of lesser value, such as plastic
lumber, carpets or a fleece sweatshirt.
Plastic degrades in quality when it is recycled, and while
it’s tough to know how many times a piece of plastic will
get recycled before becoming unusable, experts
estimate it may only be once or twice. After that, it is
landfilled, incinerated, or ends up in the environment.
There’s only one real solution: make and consume less
plastic.
65. Most US recycling programs are
“single stream”, meaning all
household recycling (paper,
cardboard, plastic, glass) goes into
the same bin. A plastic container
filled with food, soda or leftover
shampoo could leak and
contaminate an entire batch of
perfectly good recyclables,
rendering everything junk. So be
careful.
73. Think about this. If
we increase our
recycling efforts in
the US to 60%,we
could save the
equivalent of 315
million barrels of oil
per year.
74. Once you’ve established when the curbside pick up arrives or what
your local recycling facility will accept, it’s time to make your home
system convenient and sustainable so you remain consistent.
75. One of the top ways to reduce your footprint is through
changing your relationship with consumer goods. From fast
fashion to single-use containers, reducing your household
waste will make an impact on not only your community, but
also climate change as a whole.
76. There are thousands of products that
are made out of recyclable materials
from detergent bottles, to household
cleaners, to
fabric bags.
Use a reusable bag
79. PRE-CONSUMER POST-CONSUMER
Mill scraps recycled
internally at
manufacturing plants
Material returned by
consumers, through
recycling programs, to the
manufacturing process
Choose products with the highest % of POST CONSUMER
recycled content
80.
81.
82.
83.
84.
85.
86. Here are someTIPS to
help you reduce the
amount of things that you
would feel compelled to
recycle.
Don’t take extra FREE
items
90. Fabric Tote Bags
Fabric Bags That Carry the Weight of the World
I want to offer you an easy way to stop using plastic bags
altogether.
91. You can be a part of this eco-friendly movement without
having to carry the cumbersome stack of bags (that were
undoubtably created from raw materials, which uses more
oil).
92. Solution
Tote bags are made from textile scraps
Underprivileged community is trained and paid a fair wage
Tote bags are reusable bags that can be machine washed
Upcycled
Circular economy
Companies want to align with products that represent them
as environmentally and socially responsible
The sustainable event trend is continuing to grow
with no signs of stopping so it’s time to get on board!
96. Needles and syringes are not recyclable for
curbside pick up, but there are community-
based programs that will safely dispose of
them.
97. Make sure to read the
container of
hazardous waste
products to
understand how to
properly dispose of
them inside of the
container.
98. The simplest solution
to recycling your old
computer, or e waste,
is to pass it on. Ask at
a local school or put a
notice on a
community bulletin
board offering your
computer free for the
taking
102. There is absolutely no other action available today
that can have this type of simultaneous positive
impact so many things critical to our existence on
this planet.
103. =
55M
1.5M
When U.S. recycling levels reach 75%
it will be the environmental and CO2
equivalent of removing 55 million cars
from U.S. roads each year.
And generate 1.5 million new jobs in
the US.
