February 27, 2010
Should You Recycle Items Without A Recycling Symbol?
I have a plastic bottle of Suave body wash that I just finished. It doesn’t have a recycle symbol on the bottom (or anywhere on the bottle). Should I still put it in the recycling bin or just throw it away?
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Comments on Should You Recycle Items Without A Recycling Symbol? »
No – a lot of plastics can’t be recycled because they contain dyes and other additives that can’t be removed from the plastic polymer. Adding plastics that can’t be recycled to your recyclables makes a lot of trouble for those trying to sort – meaning increased manpower and increased cost to recycle. (and not all plastics that DO have the recycling symbol can be recycled in your area, e.g. NYC will recycle bottles made of #1, but not take out containers due to the WAY the plastic was formed – blown versus molded). Anyway, the most eco-friendly thing to do is buy a bar of glycerin (vegetable based) soap which foams up just as well on your pouff and doesn’t have a bottle, and write Suave an email telling them why you won’t use their body wash anymore.
p.s. vegetable based soaps are better anyway – the others contain phthalates and are PETROLEUM based which means that you’re diverting oil from energy to soap – imagine how much cheaper oil would be if we all used vegetable based shampoos, dish soap, laundry detergent, etc!