Where Does Your Recycling Go?

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again now… Do not call me “green”. I may have many “green” tendencies but I prefer to call myself frugal. Like with recycling… Here in Iowa we have a deposit on bottles and cans. This was put into place about 20 years ago (give or take) to cut down on litter along Iowa’s roadways. Since that time recycling has become a pretty common thing so you would think this who deposit thing would end. Nope…

But honestly, I recycle anything that can be. In fact the B&B owner we stayed with in Killarney said, “I’ve never had anyone stay that asked about recycling or sorted things for recycling”.

I replied, “Well, I won’t fill landfills at home with this stuff, so I won’t fill yours.”

What I’m wondering now, though, is if our local recycling company knows that they can sell the Scrap HDPE that they collect. Because it would take a single family ages to collect enough to sell- but the company that picks up our recycling every Friday could probably make a bit of profit (and lower my costs) by selling it.

Just in case you are wondering what HDPE scrap is, here are some examples:

HDPE film form is used in snack food packages and cereal box liners. Blow-molded
bottle form is mostly used for non-carbonated drink and milk bottles.
Injection-molded tub form is used for packaging whipped toppings, margarine and
deli foods. Because HDPE has excelent chemical resistance, it is also used for
packaging household and industrial chemicals such as detergents, acid, bleach,
etc. General use of High Density PolyEthylene includes injection-molded beverage
cases, bread trays, bottles for beverages and household chemicals, films for
grocery sacks, etc.

Who plans to call their recycling company to see if they utilize a company that will buy plastic scrap? I’m thinking I will…