All plastic is recyclable. That is, it is possible to make and sell new products from any kind of plastic. Very little plastic actually gets recycled. There are two major reasons for the low rate of plastic recycling.

First, most recycling by individuals takes place through municipal recycling collection programs. Those programs do not accept all kinds of plastic.

Second, too many people do not participate in these collection programs at all. At best, their plastic will wind up in a landfill, where it can contribute to leachate. If it’s not properly managed, that leachate can pollute ground water. What doesn’t make it to the landfill winds up as litter–on land and sea–where it becomes hazardous to wild life.

When you look at a piece of plastic to decide whether you can put it out with the recycling, you look for a recycling symbol to see what number is in it. Not everything has a symbol at all. Many municipalities accept only numbers one and two. That doesn’t mean that no other recycling possibilities exist, but most people will look no farther.

Best use of waste plastic: recycled products

No. 1 — PET or PETE (polyethylene terephthalate)

The most common plastic for single-use beverage bottles, PETE is also found in bottles and jars for mouthwash, salad dressings, peanut butter, and vegetable oil containers, as well as the kind of plastic food trays you can put in the oven.

I have written earlier about how these bottles can be used to make polyester fabric. Other products made with recycled PETE include polar fleece, tote bags, furniture, carpet, and paneling. Nearly all curbside recycling programs accept PETE, and demand is high among remanufacturers. Nevertheless, only about 20% get recycled.

No. 2 — HDPE (high density polyethylene)

Beverages not bottled in PETE, notably milk, juice, and some gallon water jugs, likely come in HDPE. So does detergent, bleach, and other household cleaners; shampoo and motor oil; and butter and yogurt. Some trash and shopping bags, as well as cereal box liners, are also made of HDPE.

Municipal recycling programs usually accept HDPE, although some allow only certain shapes. Recycled HDPE turns up in new bottles (for stuff like laundry detergent and motor oil, not food), drainage pipe, floor tile, and lumber for benches, fences, picnic tables, and doghouses.

If PETE has a very low recycling rate, HDPE has to be even lower because of the restrictions some municipalities place on what shapes of this plastic they will accept.

Next best scenario: ultimately the landfill

No. 3 –Vinyl or PVC (polyvinyl chloride)

PVC is a subclass of vinyl. There are various vinyls and various PVCs. Since all vinyls have the same number, I won’t attempt to keep them separate. They are especially useful in construction, providing siding, floor tiles, pipes, etc. Some packaging comes from vinyl. Softer vinyls go into clothing, upholstery, and various inflatable products.

These plastics can be recycled into decks, paneling, flooring, and any number of other things, but they are hardly ever accepted in municipal recycling collections. Therefore products made from recycled vinyls must come from industrial waste and not consumer waste.

No. 4 — LDPE (low density polyethylene)

All those plastic shopping bags, including dry cleaner bags, come from LDPE. So do the bags bread and frozen foods come in. It is also found in tote bags, furniture, carpeting, and clothing.

Hardly any municipal recycling collection programs accept these plastic bags, but many stores will take them back. It’s very easy to get a large plastic bag, stuff it full of smaller ones, and then take it to the grocery store. Every one ought to do so, but only a small percentage of these bags ever make it there.

Some jurisdictions are beginning to ban the kind of shopping bags we get at checkout counters. Consumers can easily get a supply of cloth bags (including, of course, bags made from recycled plastic!) and avoid taking LDPE home from the checkout counter.

It’s much more difficult to avoid plastic bags for bread, frozen foods, bulk produce and candy, dry cleaning, etc. I have seen reusable cloth bags for produce, but they’re so expensive that not many consumers will consider them worth the cost.

Even if you faithfully carry cloth bags around, you will still take home plenty of LDPE. Take it back to the grocery store for recycling. It can be made into some astounding things, including lumber!

Worst case scenario: litter

No. 5 — PP (polypropylene)

Quite a bit of food comes in PP, including yogurt, hummus, syrup, and ketchup. If the bottle isn’t PP, chances are the cap is. This plastic is also found in medicine bottles and drinking straws.

Only a few curbside collection programs accept PP. It’s a shame, because it can be made into so many things. Whole Foods has begun to accept PP for recycling.  Particularly dedicated recyclers can mail PP to recycling companies.

No. 6 — PS (polystyrene)

Known by the trade name Styrofoam, PS comes to us as disposable plates, bowls, and cups; meat trays and egg cartons; and carryout containers. Less obviously, it’s used for aspirin bottles and compact disc cases.

The most difficult of plastics to recycle, it nevertheless can be made into a number of useful products. Hardly any curbside programs accept PS, and there aren’t many other recycling alternatives.

It’s interesting that at some grocery chains, the store-brand eggs come in styrofoam and the premium, expensive ones come in paperboard. I get all my eggs at the one chain that packages their store brand in paperboard. That is the only way I have successfully avoided styrofoam, which of all the six plastics with numbers probably leaches the most toxins in the landfill.

Why litter is worst. If you don’t like this picture, help boost plastic recycling

No. 7 — Other

Everything that won’t fit into one of the first six categories goes here. There’s quite a variety, but nothing made in sufficient quantity to justify giving it its own symbol. One of these plastics (polyactide) comes from plants. It’s compostable. Too bad it doesn’t have its own number so interested consumers could toss it on the heap of dead leaves and grass!

Only a few municipalities accept these miscellaneous plastics for curbside recycling. Since the number is a catchall and comprises so many different kinds of plastic, offering them for recycling may be close to impossible. Nevertheless, remanufactures can make quite a few different things from them. As with the vinyls, they must get them from the industrial waste stream, not consumers.

Municipalities collect only a few types of plastic for recycling because they have to sell it. If they collect what they can’t sell, then it has to go to the landfill anyway. If enough small, local companies begin to make products from other plastics besides numbers 1 and 2, they will create a market. Municipalities will probably be happy to take accept anything through curbside recycling that they can sell. That leaves the second problem with low plastic recycling rates: the number of people who apparently don’t participate in recycling efforts at all. No easy solution comes to mind.