Recycling officials say resin codes confuse consumers

While ASTM International Inc. continues to deliberate slowly over changes to the 23-year-old resin identification code, an overwhelming majority of municipality and state recycling officials recently surveyed say the current codes are “confusing to the public and hinder recycling efforts.”

Specifically, 82% said that “people think everything with the same number should be recyclable whether it is a bottle, tub or toy, and 78% said that people thin that “chasing arrows mean something is recyclable.”

Another 68% said that there was also a “lack of consistency” in programs within a region as to what can and can´t be recycled.

The survey, done for the Bureau of Waste Prevention Reuse and Recycling of the Department of Sanitation for the city of New York, represents recycling officials from at least 29 states.

Of the 334 surveyed, 199 represented local governments, 42 state governments, 18 material recovery facilities (MRFs) and 11 private recyclers. The other 64 were from a mix of consultants, businesses, universities and non-profits, private citizens and federal and regional government representatives.

Almost three-quarters — or 74% — said the codes are used today primarily for education and that they want the codes to be strengthened so that they can be better used for that purpose. Almost four-fifths, or 79%, said that they strongly agreed that the purpose of the codes going forward should be to “aid the public in sorting plastics that can and cannot be recycled in their local program.”

Another 53% said they strongly agreed that the codes should used to identify plastic materials “with like compositions that could be potentially recycled if a market were to develop,” and 47% said they strongly agreed that the codes should be used to aid MRFs in processing recycled plastics.

Almost three-fifths of those surveyed, or 57%, said a code should be added for compostable plastics, and 40% said that the chasing arrows should be removed, with others suggesting that the recycling arrows only be used on items that can be recycled.

One-third recommended that a code be added for the type of molding method used to make the plastic, while others said that the code numbers themselves should be larger, and when that when products made from the same resin can´t be recycled, they should have a different number.

An ASTM subcommittee is scheduled to vote on a number of proposals at its next meeting in April, including whether to give linear low density polyethylene and polylactic acid their own numbers when the code is eventually revised, possibly later this year.

About one-fifth, or 18%, said that they don´t use the codes at all. The two top reasons given by more than 60% of those respondents:

• The codes “cause confusion … and complicate our outreach education” about what is and is not accepted for recycling.
• They “do not adequately distinguish” between items accepted and not accepted for recycling.

More than three-quarters of those surveyed — or 77% — said that they get phone calls and emails from people saying they don´t understand the codes. Even more, 88%, said the general public has told them that they don´t understand why municipalities can´t accept all plastics.

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Source: Waste & Recycling News
By Mike Verespej