The Plastic Reduction Alliance played a game of “Is it recyclable?” Wednesday night.
“For the longest time, I thought any plastics I take into my home, I just take to the plastics recycling facility and they’re dealt with properly,” Valparaiso University chemistry Professor Julie Peller said.
“We look around our world, and we know we have a lot of plastic waste out there,” she said “We have a crisis.”
To educate people on what can be recycled, the Plastic Reduction Alliance used a game show format, quizzing the panelists.
Plastic clamshell packaging with a black bottom? In LaPorte County, yes, but not in Porter and Lake counties.
The difference is the technology at the plant where it’s processed.
“It’s just different programming, I think, in their optical scanners,” said Sacha Gee-Burns, environmental educator and public outreach specialist with the LaPorte County Recycling and Solid Waste District.
LaPorte County uses a facility in Elkhart. Lake and Porter counties use Homewood Disposal, where the optical scanner can’t recognize black plastics on the black conveyor belt at the sorting center, Porter County Recycling and Waste Reduction Executive Director Keri Marrs-Barton said.
How about a plastic spoon? No.
A No. 5 clear plastic cup? Yes.
Red Solo cups? No, except in LaPorte County.
People who have a lot of them could take them to LaPorte County’s drop-off bins to be recycled. “We don’t check to see where you’re from. We’re just happy you’re recycling,” Gee-Burns said.
A clear bowl, No. 5 plastic? Yes, in all three counties.
A foaming hand sanitizer bottle with a sprayer pump?
Just the bottle, not the sprayer, Marrs-Barton said. But in LaPorte County, the whole thing could be recycled, including the cap over the sprayer, Gee-Burns said.
Syringe without a number indicating the type of plastic? No.
Plastic hanger? No.
No. 1 plastic Bath and Body Works bottle that still had some product? The pump had a metal spring.
Porter County would take it as is, Marrs-Barron said, without being rinsed out.
“That’s mild gunk,” Peller, who specializes in organic chemistry, said.
Trash bag? They can be taken to grocery stores, but Valparaiso University students can recycle them on campus. The bags are often recycled into synthetic lumber, Gee-Burns said.
Plastic clamshell berry containers? Not in Porter County, but yes in LaPorte County. They used to be No. 6 plastic, so nobody could recycle them, Gee-Burns said. Before that, though, they were made of wood or cardboard, materials still used at some farmstands.
Water bottle? Yes, and leave the cap on so liquid doesn’t spill out and contaminate the rest of the recyclables.
For the past 20 to 25 years, recycling proponents have been teaching people to take the caps off before recycling, Marrs-Barron said.
At Valparaiso High School, students Moria Kuka and Naia Nikitaras are leading the charge to become more environmentally conscious in the cafeteria. More education is needed, Kuka said, to urge students to empty liquid out of cups before putting them in the recycling bin. “It’s very much a lack of care,” she said.
“If somebody dumps a full aluminum can in there, it just ruins it for everybody,” Nikitaras said.
“The manufacturers are now trying to respond,” Marrs-Barron said, learning consumer behavior to improve designs. Bottles now instruct consumers to put the cap back on before recycling.
If you already have a collection of bottle caps, however, the Valparaiso Noon Kiwanis Club will find a use for them, she said. Take the caps to the Ivy Tech Community College security officer, who will get them to the professor who will transport them to their destination so they can be made into benches or other products.
Mohawk uses bottles and cups to make carpeting, Valparaiso University Energy and Sustainability Coordinator Tyler Kuss, of Crown Point, said.
A quick rinse, not a trip through the dishwasher, is enough for plastic containers, Gee-Burns said. That’s especially true for motor oil bottles and similar containers. Where would that oil go if you poured it out?
As for peanut butter jars, they’re trickier to rinse out. “Dogs love peanut butter,” so they’ll lick your jar for you, Marrs-Burton said.
It’s important to learn better recycling habits, but that’s only part of the solution. “We are overconsuming; we are using way too much,” she said. “Everything’s plastic. Phones. Our glasses so I can see our plastic.”
How about recycling polystyrene, No. 6 plastic? In LaPorte County, yes, but not with curbside recycling. Take it to the compost site in LaPorte or the collection site in Michigan City, where there are special bins for that type of plastic, as well as semis to drop off electronics recycling.
Unlike Lake and Porter counties, which leave the decision to offer curbside recycling up to municipalities, all LaPorte County homeowners are provided bins for curbside recycling, every other week, as part of the $72 annual fee on their property tax bills, Gee-Burns said.
LaPorte County advises residents that plastic with a number on it can be recycled, but set the No. 6 plastic aside for the special collection bins.
In Porter County, the strategy is different. “Bottles, tubs, jugs and jars” is the mantra to remember for determining which plastics can be recycled, Marrs-Barron said.
The Plastic Reduction Alliance event was held in Portage, which decided last year to drop curbside recycling because so many homeowners contaminated the recyclables by putting trash in the recycling bins, causing the contaminated truckloads to be diverted to the landfill. Running duplicate garbage routes wasn’t economical, Streets and Sanitation Superintendent Randy Reeder said at the time.
Doug Ross is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
