Ways to tell good plastics from bad ones
Some plastics are more recyclable than others.
Photo: Plenty 
Every Earth Day finds us thinking of the 3 Rs: Recycle, Reuse, and....? Oh, well, never mind. But we do want to, need to, remember the plastics code. We know that some plastics are more recyclable than others. Some can leach toxic chemicals into our water and food--not to mention, when dumped in landfills, into our earth and water. How to tell good and bad plastics apart?
Comments
I love you!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
and we're not the same person!
))<>((
Reduce is referred to as "last." Reduce is first! Reduce, Reuse, Recycle! Recycling is a panacea to make us feel ok about using a product that's very creation is bad for the planet. Also, much material bound for recycling is now shipped to Asia on huge container ships and that ain't good for the planet either!!! REDUCE REUSE RECYCLE!
You refer to "reduce" as last. That's backwards. In order to really do something about plastics we need to reduce, reuse, recycle. Recycling is the last resort, not the first choice. Recycling of plastic is a panecea to make us feel ok about using a product who's very creation is damaging to the earth. REDUCE - REUSE - RECYCLE!
Good info, but why use old-fashioned copyright? CC-BY or CC-BY-SA (an open Creative Commons license) would let people reuse it and credit you.
The plastic recycling codes are available in the Unicode character set so probably in most modern browsers, starting with character U+2673: ♳♴♵ but needing big text to be reasonably readable.
Yep, my curbside program takes #3 also!
If you do find yourself with #6 plastic you can make jewelry from it. I've done this before with takeout containers.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Doodle-Earrings-Jewelry-Charms-by-Recycl...
So, if #3 isn't recyclable, why does our curbside recycling program accept it? They say they accept 1-7.
