California officials should be commended for their push to encourage consumers to recycle plastic water bottles, but it is important to remember that many other plastic bottles — for shampoo, laundry detergent, cleaning products, milk, soft drinks, and salad dressings — are often overlooked for recycling.
Many plastic bottles found in homes should be set out for recycling. More than 70 percent of California's single-family homes have access to curbside collection programs, and far too many plastic bottles are disposed of rather than recycled.
This is the primary reason the American Plastics Council launched its “all-bottle” collection program, a simplified public education program that can help curbside recycling programs increase the amount of plastic bottles collected for recycling.
More than 1,200 communities across the country utilize this concept, with San Francisco and Denver being two of the most recent cities to implement the program. Our studies show that all-bottle programs have increased plastic bottle recovery 13-44 percent and we stand ready to work with those local recycling programs that would like to maximize their plastic bottle collection. More information about this program is available at www.allplasticbottles.org.
The unique properties and characteristics of plastics — light weight, durability, formability — enable manufacturers to minimize raw materials, energy consumed and waste generated in the production of goods ranging from automobiles to coffee cups to bottles. These are some of the reasons there has been tremendous growth in the use of plastic packaging. Consumers can do their part for resource conservation by taking advantage of local plastic recycling opportunities.
Tim Shestek
American Plastics Council
Sacramento, Calif.
