Plastic Bottlecaps Now Recyclable

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Monday, September 06, 2010

GoLocalProv Features Team

We don't have to throw them away any more.

Plastic bottlecaps - everything from the screw-on tops to water bottles, ketchup bottles, laundry detergent jugs, bodywash and shampoo bottles, even the little tops of bottles of pills - can be recycled in Rhode Island right along with the plastic bottles they came with. Even trigger-style plastic toppers can be recycled.

Why? The type of plastic in bottlecaps (rigid high-density polyethylene, HDPE or no. 2 plastic) has always been recyclable, but it was the fact that these injection-molded pieces were mixing with blow-molded, hollow plastic bottles. Previous sorting technologies couldn't deal with the mix of these two types of pieces, but now, according to Rhode Island Resource Recovery Corporation, they can.

Just make sure the caps are attached, and don't forget to rinse out the bottles (it improves their value).

Which means everything from that plastic bottle can go into the Blue Bin. And a whole lot of plastic just moved from trash to recycling.

RIRRC adds that in the near future it will be able to recycle all kinds of plastic - from 1 to 7. Stay tuned for announcements of these developments.

Need reminding on what can be recyled, and in which colored bin? Go here for Recyclopedia.