More than 1,000 American recycling collection programs collect all types of plastic bottles from residents. Nineteen out of 20 of these bottles are made from either polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or high-density polyethylene (HDPE), for which a large recycling market exists, both domestically and internationally. But what happens to the non-PET and HDPE bottles? Over the past few months, Resource Recycling, Inc. (Portland, Oregon) has been updating and expanding upon its original research from 2000 that explored recycling programs collecting all plastic bottles. Our past survey, in fact, reached out to any program that collected more than just 1-PET and 2-HDPE bottles. With funding provided by the American Plastics Council (Arlington, Virginia), our 2003 survey is looking at pre- and post-conversion recovery rates; consumer education and promotional effectiveness; and lessons learned from the successes and challenges of programs across the U.S.
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