Where Should I Recycle My Plastic?

Although it may seem convenient to place recyclable plastic items such as bags, wraps, and sacks in curbside containers, many times it’s not necessarily the best option. In fact, when consumers do place their plastic films in curbside recycling instead of the grocery store drop-off bins, plastic films can cause serious problems for the city’s waste management and recycling facilities.

First, the wrong kinds of plastic materials placed in curbside recycling bins can easily contaminate an entire batch of recyclable materials, forcing the items to wind up as waste in landfills. Second, placing plastics in curbside containers requires additional staff at facilities to sort through recyclables, which can otherwise dilute the resin value in each batch. Finally, plastic films can become trapped in machines, delaying or even shutting down an entire recycling process line until the item is found or removed. These problems defeat the purpose of wanting to recycle your plastic items in the first place!

Avoiding these kinds of set-backs in the recycling process is instrumental in ensuring that plastic bags, wraps and sacks stay in the recycling stream and out of landfills. For this reason, Hilex created its unique Bag-2-Bag recycling program. Because many shoppers don’t know which items should be recycled by curbside and which can’t, our Bag-2-Bag program makes things simple and easy. It takes all plastic bags, wraps, and sacks back to state-of-the-art recycling centers designed to process these items. Understanding that not all plastic items are curbside recyclable is the first step in helping the environment.