Plastic bag manufacturers need to produce bags in white to light beige for recycling programs. Why? No one wants to recycle blue bags because the colors they go to are lighter than blue. I have tons of blue bags with no homes for them. Here is an instance where recyclers and end users of post-consumer plastics need to have the say-so on coloring of bags. A white bag with a small chasing-arrows logo in light yellow on both sides is enough to identify it as a recycling bag, and not a trash bag. There are tons of blue bags out there that go to landfills because I can't find anyone to buy them — or even just take them off my hands.
Have you ever noticed all the blue Wal-Mart bags that float around in parking lots? Wal-Mart does a bad job of recycling them. I see them all over communities. Paper bags have lost out to plastic bags, but look at the problems we have with plastic flying around the communities and landfills.
I would like to see more common sense about manufacturing plastics and recycling plastics. I feel the plastic industry has a long way to go to catch up with the paper industry.
To be honest with you, I would prefer to see paper bags again. At least they could be recycled easier in any community curbside program. And they have a greater value as a commodity to the recycler.
Trees are a renewable resource — plastics base stock is not!
Walter Bobruk
Agency Fibers Ltd. LLC
Huntsville, Texas