Recycling Plastics
Plastic is light, flexible, and versatile. Plastic is used to package, wrap, and contain everything from groceries to soft drinks to toys. Plastic is made into televisions, dashboards, cups and carpet.
Plastic takes up almost 18% of California's landfill space &151; more than food and yard waste combined. Film plastic (including plastic bags) is nearly half of landfilled plastics.
What About Plastic Bags?
Do NOT put plastic bags in your curbside recycling container!
Most grocery stores have bins just inside the front door where you can recycle old grocery bags and newspaper bags. Some other retailers &151; including Wal-Mart &151; also collect old plastic bags for recycling.
Follow these guidelines when dropping off plastic bags for recycling:
- Recycle grocery bags, newspaper bags, and old retail bag at participating stores.
- Remove strings or hard plastic handles from retail bags.
- All plastic bags must be clean and dry.
- Remove all receipts.
- Do Not recycle food wrap (e.g. Saran Wrap®).
- Do Not recycle plastic bags that have had direct contact with food.
- Do Not recycle plastic bags that have been glued.
Remember, you can also reuse plastic bags by using them to line trash containers in your home. This saves you money because you can avoid buying new plastic bags.
Plastic bags are the most trashed plastic from California's homes. You can recycle plastic bags at most grocery stores including Vons, Wal-Mart, and Stater Brothers. Check with your local market to see if they are recycling bags too.
For more information, go to http://www.plasticbagrecycling.org or call (888) 753-7485.
You can redeem plastic water, soda, beer, juice, coffee, and tea containers at local buy-back and convenience centers. You can find a local recycling center by calling 1-800-RECYCLE or searching by ZIP code at http://www.bottlesandcans.com/where.php