Do Your Part, How to Be and Live Green in Charlotte, NC

Recycling Plastic

Plastics are everywhere and much of it is recyclable.  I recently visited the Metrolina Recycling Center in Charlotte.  This facility processes 16 one thousand pound bales of plastics everyday.  

Recycled plastics can be made into lots of products including new plastics, apparel, lumber and carpeting.  Paul O'Donnell, Director of Commodities for FCR tells us what happens to the plastic processed at the Metrolina Recycling Center  “once it leaves here it goes through another processing where it’s ground up, washed, pelletized and then brought into the new products.”

Recycling keeps plastic out of the landfill but there is also an economic benefit to recycling plastic. "It's created a whole new industry set up to use this material.  there's the whole environmental issues, the  sustainability issue and it just doesn’t make sense to bury this stuff in the ground when it can be used as raw material in other industries” according to O'Donnell.

Right now, Americans only recycle 5% of the plastics produced in this country and up until recently that was partly because is was less expensive to make plastic from virgin material rather than recycled material. With the current price of crude oil, from which plastic is made, that's no longer true.  Recycling plastic is a profitable business but as Geoff Burdick, Project Manager for Charlotte Mecklenburg Solid Waste Services tells us, it's not just about the money.

"Our current landfill in the south end of the county has about 23 years left in it and trying to get a new landfill sited with the State restructuring, it takes an act of god to make that happen.  Although its in the future we should think about it now because in 23 years we're not going to have any where to put our trash."

So do your part by recycling all of the plastic you can and by buying products made from recycled plastic.   Learn what kinds of  plastics your local recycler will accept by clicking here.