Thursday, May 1, 2008

Recycling Can Fix This, Right? Wrong.

(from Reusablebags.com)

Recycling Can Fix This, Right? Wrong.

Recycling has its place -- in fact, we offer bags made of recycled PET because we support sustainable paths for the world's overabundance of plastic.

However, it's not the complete solution.

Recycling rates for plastic bags are extremely low. Only 1 to 3% of plastic bags end up getting recycled.

In addition, economics of recycling plastic bags are not appealing. From the process of sorting, to the contamination of inks and the overall low quality of the plastic used in plastics bags, recyclers would much rather focus on recycling the vast quantities of more viable materials such as soda and milk bottles that can be recycled far more efficiently. If the economics don't work, recycling efforts don't work. more

Image: www.inhabitat.com