Recyclable vs Unrecyclable Plastics

A lot of our language uses the terms “recyclable” and “unrecyclable”, and those definitions have evolved with Free Plastic since the start of the year.

Broward county used to have a rule that only narrow-necked plastic containers could be recycled (think water bottles, milk jugs, laundry detergent containers, etc). This rule meant that for us, plastic take-out containers, soup containers, yogurt & sour cream containers, and any other clearly-marked, clean plastic object was deemed “unrecyclable”.

Luckily, Broward and Miami-Dade counties have abandoned that restriction, and now accept nearly any clean plastic that is marked as plastic 1-7. The exceptions would be bags, bubble wrap & other packing materials, netting, toys, utensils, plates, bowls, and other kitchen wares.

Styrofoam is also an exception and cannot be recycled via our curbside recycling system. Thankfully, Publix recycles styrofoam (and plastic bags!) via their bins at the front of their stores.

Thermoset plastics (vinylester, polyester, epoxy, etc) are considered to be unrecyclable throughout the world, so those are doomed to end up in landfills or incinerators. BUT! We are developing our thermoset recycling system, and we hope to have it live by the end of the summer (2019).

As you can see, the list of “unrecyclable plastics” is a fairly small list, until you add in our core focus, ocean plastic.

Ocean plastic brings us all kinds of plastics: some marked, some clean, some unmarked, some with living creatures within/on them, some horribly polluted, some with human/medical waste, and some that we can’t even tell if their plastics for sure.

All of our farmed plastics are sorted by recyclable and unrecyclable, and then by type and color. We use the lists above to quickly separate out the unrecyclable plastics. We also create a pile of “unknown” types that we eventually test and sort using various float & flexibility tests.

Now, our current list of unrecyclable plastics is a bit more refined. As you can see in the picture, some of those include:

• ABS plastics (car parts, toys, electronic devices, etc).
• PVC plastics (they are deadly when you try to melt them).
• Any plastic container that is horribly covered in a lubricant, oil, etc.
• Plastic containers that still have chemicals, paints, and/or glues on them (we try to clean them with detergents/degreasers, but if the effort is too great, they become unrecyclable).
• Plastic netting
• Plastic objects that don’t give a definitive result from our float & flexibility tests

When we are left with a pile like the one in the picture, we get the shedder out and get to work!

These shredded, unrecyclable plastics are kept apart from our numbered & organized plastic used in baking. These are marked and as used in our epoxy pours — where we will make table tops, coasters, chess sets, signage, and works of art. We just finished our first piece of art in the Plastic Ocean series.

Have a question? Email us to learn more!