Filed under: Going Green, Green Facts | Tags: car, dealership, environment, landfill, plastic, recycle, reduce, reuse, waste
As a country we are generating a lot of plastic that is either disposed of in landfills or recycled. Some recent statistics (2010) indicate that about 12 percent of landfill space is used by some form of plastic. That number is growing very fast. Fifty years ago it was only 1 percent.
Here how plastics are made:
Plastics fall into two basic categories; thermosets and thermoplastic.
Thermosets sets when heated and is used for durable items such as construction and automobile parts.
Thermoplastic softens when exposed to heat. It is used for products such as milk jugs, floor covering and carpet fibers.
Here are some interesting plastic waste statistics (2010):
- Over 30 million tons of plastic were generated representing over 12 percent of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW)
- Only 8 percent of the total plastic generated was recovered for recycling
- About 7 million tons of plastic are non durable goods which includes plates and cups
- About 11 million tons of plastic was durable which includes plastic in appliances, etc.
Plastic pollution is a problem because plastic takes so long to decompose. A website maintained by the Mid Michigan Waste Authority provides numerous links that explore all aspects of plastic pollution. Here is an excerpt from their website:
Quick Facts about Plastic Pollution
- A plastic milk jug takes 1 million years to decompose.
- A plastic cup can take 50 – 80 years to decompose.
- Recycled plastic can be used to make things like trash cans, park benches, playground equipment, decks, and kayaks.
- Special fleece-like fabrics used in clothes and blankets can be made out of recycled plastic bottles.
- Americans use 2.5 million plastic bottles every HOUR.
- Plastic bags and other plastic garbage thrown into the ocean kill as many as 1 million sea creatures every year.
- Recycling plastic saves twice as much energy as burning it in an incinerator.
- A United States law, implementing an international agreement called MARPOL Annex V, became effective on December 31, 1988. It prohibits the disposal of plastics into the marine environment and requires ports to provide reception facilities for ship-generated plastic waste.
- Today, Americans generate 10.5 million tons of plastic waste a year but recycle only 1 or 2 % of it.
- An estimated 14 billion pounds of trash, much of it plastic is dumped in the world’s oceans every year.
- The worldwide fishing industry dumps an estimated 150,000 tons of plastic into the ocean each year, including packaging, plastic nets, lines, and buoys.
- About 1,200 plastic soft drink and salad dressing containers could carpet the average living room.
- It takes 1,050 HDPE (#2) milk jugs to make a six-foot plastic lumber park bench.
- Every year we make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap the state of Texas.
- Nearly every piece of plastic EVER made still exists today.
You can go to their website for further plastic pollution information and action that you can take. Click here to go to their website:
Most plastics have a resin identification code as you would typically see on the bottom of plastic container. The resin number is usually inside a triangle which is frequently confused for the recycling symbol. It does not mean that the item can be collected for recycling. Here is a chart of the codes and what they mean:
| Resin Identification Code |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
6 |
7 |
| Type of Resin Content |
PET |
HDPE |
Vinyl |
LDPE |
PP |
PS |
OTHER |
|
|
Note the difference in these two recycle related logos. It is often confused that the resin identification guarantees that a plastic item is recycable but that is the farthest thing from the truth. The number is for sorting purposes.
There are about 2,000 companies in the US that handle or process post-consumer plastic. Recycling occurs either curbside or at drop-off points. Often this is included in full stream recycling and is mixed with other recyclable material such as paper. The recyclable material goes through a number of sorting and cleaning processes until it is finally ready for processing which includes grinding it into small flakes. After further processing it is formed into pellets and shipped to product manufacturing plants where they begin the cycle again as new plastic products.
Source reduction is about reducing the amount of waste that is generated. Here plastic plays an important role as plastic is generally more lightweight than its alternatives such as glass, paper, or metal. These lighter weight materials require less fuel to transport and result in less material in the waste stream.
Green Dealer Support works with dealers to identify items that are being added to the waste stream and may eventually end up in landfills.
Green Dealer Support 