Only plastics with a number, simple as that

By Jeremy Appel on August 31, 2018.

jappel@medicinehatnews.com @MHNJeremyAppel

The manager of Medicine Hat’s recycling plant says Hatters need to be more aware of what they can and can’t put in their blue bins.

For plastics, the best way to determine if it’s recyclable is whether it has a recycling logo on the bottom, which is accompanied by a number from one to seven, says Randy Wong, of CanPak, the company tasked with handling the city’s curbside recycling.

“If you want to throw out your toy truck and flip it over, there’s no recycle logo,” he said.

This is because an item like a toy truck is made up of different types of material, including but not limited to plastic.

“Recycling has mainly been about containers,” said Wong. “People get wound up and think they can recycle everything.”

There are some products, such as tupperware, that appear to be recyclable — it’s plastic after all — but are what’s referred to as “end-of-life products” that are already made from recyclable material and thus don’t have a number at the bottom.

“My biggest concern is that I have to be able to market that material to the next guy who’s going to process it and break that plastic down,” Wong said. “Every plastic has its own melting point.”

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The plant must split up the different types of plastic, because each one melts at a different temperature.

This wasn’t as serious an issue until recently, when China stopped purchasing other countries’ plastic earlier this year.

Wong said this is because about 25 per cent of the recyclables sent to China were contaminated, either by non-recyclable material or a product in the wrong category.

According to National Geographic, China had took in 45 per cent of the world’s plastic imports, leaving the rest of the world in limbo.

“A dirty peanut-butter jar, (for example), you can’t recycle it,” he said. “It contaminates the rest of the plastics.”

The product doesn’t have to be 100 per cent clean, but if it still has significant residue after a double-rinse, it’s probably more suited for the garbage.

Although glass is recyclable, it doesn’t belong in the blue cart. Similarly, metal is re-usable, but not intended for the blue bin. It belongs in a scrap yard.

This is especially important, as the plant’s equipment cannot handle metal, which can do major damage.

Yard waste is never meant for recycling. The best place to put it is in the green bin. If you don’t have a green bin, the next best place is the garbage.

“We’re still not going to say ‘no’ to recycling, but we’re going to continue to get better at it, so we have markets we can find,” Wong said. “The cleaner the product, the more markets we can find.”

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