Recycling as easy as 1,2,3,4,5,6,7 !!? How to help kids to recycle plastics

1. Polyethylene terephthalate (PET /PETE) - soda bottles, a lot of food bottles, some beer bottles. 
2. High-density polyethylene (HDPE) - milk, orange juice and water jugs. 
3. Vinyl (V) - plumbing pipes, old records, car decals, clear food packaging
4. Low-density polyethylene (LDPE) - grocery bags, frozen food packaging
5. Polypropylene (PP) - Yogurt cans
6. Polystyrene - plastic cups, packaging peanuts, disposable dishes and eating utensils
7. All other plastics - cannot be recycled. 

Like many people, I'm guilty of tossing all plastic in recycle, but apparently not all plastic is valuable or can be recycled!

Most recycling companies are only interested in plastics #1-PETE and #2 - HDPE. Even if you want to recycle these, the containers have to be rinsed and cleaned of food waste! 

Plastic #3 is not recycled frequently enough, because there's not enough products made from it (as opposed to soda bottles).

Plastics #4 - LDPE and #6 - PS are not recycled, because making a new piece of plastic is cheaper than transporting the existing plastic to the recycling facility. Plastic #6 is virtually indestructible and is responsible for a lot of ocean pollution. 

Some supermarkets and recycling programs accept all types of plastics for recycling purposes.

The most important part about helping kids and students recycle is to educate them about the plastic numbers. Otherwise, they would act like me - dump everything in the recycle bin and feel good about themselves! This is not the way to go, as it actually hinders a lot of real recycling efforts.

Luckily, the Upper Dublin township in Pennsylvania provides classes to over 800 students a month through its Robbins park environmental education program!

In order to identify the kin of plastic used in a package, look at the bottom of the package and find a little triangle, like a one shown above. If it says #1 or #2, drop it in the recycle bin. Otherwise, put it aside for a special recycle program, if it is offered in your area.

Because some plastics are too expensive to recycle, the best solution is to reduce their use and reuse them afterwards, as in the example of this cool reused handbag!

Try to recycle today and keep your streets and parks clean by not littering!