Recycling "Flips Its Lid" in Iowa
Richard Alan, Public News
Service-IA
http://www.publicnewsservice.org/index.php?/content/article/28413-1
Join
the discussion: facebook.com/PublicNewsService
Twitter: @pns_news @pns_IA Google+: plus.to/publicnewsservice
(09/17/12) DES MOINES, Iowa - Plastic caps and lids may not be very big, but
when hundreds of thousands of them end up in landfills, they make a big impact.
The caps have not been part of the recycling process until now.
Reo
Menning with Metro Waste Authority in Des Moines says a change in recycling
technology has made it possible to reuse those plastic caps.
"Caps are
typically made out of a different plastic than the rest of the bottle, and the
challenge was, how do you separate the two different plastics, because one
plastic can't be mixed with another kind of plastic once you get to recycling.
But they've now come up with ways to be able to separate those
two."
Menning says the less that has to be tossed into landfills, the
longer those facilities will last, no matter how small the items
are.
"Right now, we don't have estimates on how much space that's really
going to save us, but we know it's going to save us some, and make it last a
little longer. "
She says all people have to do is rinse their bottles
and put the caps back on them in order to recycle them. And she explains the
reason the caps need to be on the bottles is simple: they're so small that they
are likely to be lost in transport.
---
To be removed from this list please send an e-mail to mailto:[log in to unmask]
and put the word "remove" in the subject
line.