What Do All These Symbols Mean?!

If you're feeling like the title of this post, then today's your day!

First of all - this might sound a little basic, but somebody might not know - this is the universal recycling symbol:

On most recycables, there will be this symbol (somewhere on it) with a little number inside and maybe a word underneath that looks like gibberish.

(#1) PET or PETE: Polyethylene TerephthalatePET is commonly used for soft drink & water bottles, cooking oil bottles, peanut butter containers. It is the most widely recycled plastic.

(#2) HDPE: High-Density Polyethylene Identifies milk, cider & water jugs, detergent, fabric softener & bleach bottles. HDPE is slightly waxy and semi-rigid. It does not crack. It floats in water.

(#3) PVC: Polyvinyl ChlorideAlso abbreviated V, PVC is used in salad dressing bottles, vegetable oil bottles and mouthwash bottles. PVC is smooth, scratches easily and sinks in water.

(#4) LDPE: Low-Density PolyethyleneLDPE is used in flexible bags for dry cleaning, trash, produce, bread and shrink wrap. Recycled LDPE is often used to make grocery bags.

(#5) PP: PolypropylenePP is usually is found in drinking straws, battery cases, some dairy tubs, bottles labels and caps, and rope. PP stretches into filaments and emits a chemical smell when burned.

(#6) PS: PolystyrenePS and Expanded Polystyrene (EPS) both are No. 6 plastics. PS and EPS are commonly used in packaging peanuts and other packaging materials and in plastic utensils, mean and egg trays. PS sinks in water; EPS floats.

(#7) Other: Other plastics often are made of multiple resins or layers of different types of plastics. These may include microwave packages, snack bags and industrial plastics.

Anything in these categories that has that little recycle symbol with the number and 'word' underneath can be recycled!

One more thing to remember, plastic bags are NOT recycable. However, you can bring it to your local H-E-B or Walmart and they will reuse the bag. We used to put our bit of recycle in plastic grocery bags to bring to the recycling center every few months. But - once we got there, they had us take the paper and newspapers, etc. out of the plastic bags. However, we always REUSE our plastic bags for various things, so we never throw them out. Remember the little saying they teach you in Elementary School: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. They all help our communtiy stay cleaner!

Citation: "Recycling Symbol Definitions." www.alliedwastedalycity.com. n.p. n.d. Web. 30 April 2011. <http://www.alliedwastedalycity.com/kids/symbols.cfm>

What Exactly Can I Recycle?

You might be wondering what you can and can't recycle - trust me, it's more than you think :) - so here is a list of the items accepted and not accepted. At least, according to Round Rock, Texas.

Accepted:

Paper - newspaper, magazines, phone books, junk mail, office paper and brown paper bags

Plastics (#1 through #7 [to be explained in a later post]) - milk jugs, water and soda bottles, detergent bottles, plastic tubs and jars

Tin and Steel Products and Cans - labels may be left on.

Aluminum Products and Cans

Corrugated Cardboard

Fiberboard - cereal, cake and soft drink boxes, etc.

Glass - Jars; green, clear and brown bottles

Not Accepted:

Plastic bags
Pizza Boxes

Pyrex Wax
Coated Items

Ceramics Food

Scraps Yard Waste
Garden Hoses

Textiles or Used Clothing

Light Bulbs

Electronics

We were cleaning out the office closet upstairs a while ago, and decided to throw out a bunch of spiral notebooks. BUT - guess what? You can recycle them! Just as long as you take the wire spiral out, because that part is NOT recycable. After that, it's just a bunch of paper! Also, we've had this bad habit for a really long time of throwing away our cereal boxes once they've been poured into another container (or after every child has had his/her turn looking at the back of the box...). But since we've gotten our new recycle bins, it seems that a whole lot of things we've been throwing away can be recycled! Yes - that includes your cereal boxes (don't forget to cut out the box top first!). We also try to flatten them so more fits in our bin.

Citation: "Curbside Recycling." www.roundrocktexas.gov. City of Round Rock, 2011. Web. 28 April, 2011. <http://www.roundrocktexas.gov/home/index.asp?page=378>

Recycle!

This entire blog is dedicated to recycling! I don't know how many of you out there have matching recycling bins for your neighborhood that the garbage truck comes and gets every so often, but our neighborhood just got ours, and I am so excited! Our family hasn't ever been really good at recycling, so this will give us a chance to make a fresh start and renew our recycling skills!

This blog was created for my school project. I have the assignment to "Improve my Community" and show proof of how I accomplished this task. So, with my sister's help, I came up with the idea to let people know more about recycling. Since our neighborhood just barely got our recycle bins, I know I haven't kept up on what all the symbols mean, and what you can and can't recycle, etc, so you'll now be able to find that information here!

To further my Community Improvement plan, I'm going to research all the information you could ever want (or not want) to know about recycling. To my neighborhood, I'm passing out a flyer that directs them to this blog so they can learn more about how to recycle more efficiently. Hopefully, this will help our community become more clean and environmental as we learn to recycle things we might otherwise have thrown out!