We recently got a new computer for the office, and the amount of packaging that came with it is insane! Every component was individually bagged, including all of the screws and cables. Also, the case and monitor were thoroughly padded with foam. The packaging probably takes up twice as much room as the computer!

Photo courtesy of big_debacle at Flickr.com.

Right after setting up a new computer here at Clean Air Gardening, I sorted all of the packaging so that we could recycle it. Surprisingly, almost all of the plastics were clearly labelled. Because of new state laws, the plastic junk was easy to tell apart from the plastic gold. 39 states now require at least some plastics to be labelled with SPI Resin Codes. These codes are often stamped on plastic and show a triangle formed by three arrows, with a number inside.

Unfortunately, not every plastic with one of these symbols on it can be recycled. Certain plastics are almost impossible to recycle and the value of the others may be low if there’s no local demand. Because of this, recycling centers in your area may have some odd rules about what they’ll accept. For example, some cities will accept Type 1 plastic bottles with necks, but not Type 1 plastic bottles without necks.

If a bottle is type 1 plastic, why does it matter if it has a neck? Well, the code on a bottle doesn’t tell the whole story. Since there are hundreds of types of plastic, the 7 codes each include multiple types of similar plastics. Bottles with necks are made from plastics that have a different melting point than bottles without necks, even though they may have the same code stamped on them.

Recycling plastic is important!

Bags, bottles, cartons, packing peanuts, and other plastic waste are often carried out to the ocean by the wind and waterways. Since plastic floats, the result is a giant, floating trash heap that chokes the life out of the ocean. These dead zones are growing every year.

“This is a Texas-sized patch of the Pacific ocean that is literally covered in the floating detritus of our way of life—plastic bottles, styrofoam, bags, wrappers—all told some 3 million tonnes worth.”

Photo courtesy of wellingtondany at Flickr.com.

Even the plastic that doesn’t end up getting blown into the ocean can cause problems. Plastic can take up to 1,000 years to break down!

One way to reduce the amount of plastic that gets thrown away is to encourage companies to reduce their use of styrofoam (which is one of the hardest plastics to recycle). There are alternatives to styrofoam, such as the Type 4 plastic blocks that cushioned our computer. Also, if you come across some unlabelled plastic, try writing the product’s manufacturer and urging them to use the SPI Resin Labelling system. That way, you can enlist your favorite businesses to help solve this problem.

We only purchase biodegradable cornstarch peanuts to pack orders here at Clean Air Gardening. But there’s still a small chance you might end up with styrofoam peanuts in your box. That’s because we received them with some other delivery and are reusing them instead of throwing them away. It’s not because we bought them!

We recommend reading this page from eHow about How to Recycle Plastic.

And a great way to find out where to recycle plastic (or anything else) locally is the Earth 911 web site. Just type in your zip code and what you want to recycle, and the site will tell you your options.

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This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Gardening Tips. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.