You might think that Wisconsin would have no trouble recycling dairy containers of all types. But you'd be wrong. The city of Madison, Wis., no longer wants certain plastic containers in its curbside bins, including yogurt, ice cream and whipped butter, because they say no recyclerwants them.

City recycling coordinator George Dreckmann told The Capital Times that the market for plastic bottles is strong, but not for other types of containers.

"We are sorry to announce this change," Dreckmann said. "We have no end users for old dairy tubs so we can't recycle them any longer."

I'm surprised that Madison ever collected these seldom-recycled containers, which might be used in plastic lumber.

This development has me thinking: Plastic bags are another important low-cost feedstock for plastic lumber makers. If bag makers are counting on lumber extruders to handle a big influx of grocery bags, I hope the lumber makers are ready to handle the increased volume. It would be a public relations nightmare to put a lot of bag recycling programs in place, and then find that the market has collapsed or that all the bags end up getting shipped to overseas recyclers.