It’s such a great feeling when you recycle everything you possibly can.
But the sad truth is that plastic recycling still doesn’t make sense financially for communities, where most consumer recycling happens.
So a lot of plastic ends up in the landfill or, worse, it's shipped to developing countries where it's simply dumped.
On an intuitive level we know that using lots of virgin plastic and then just throwing it away is incredibly wasteful. And once a plastic container hits the landfill, it’s not going anywhere.
But there are some pretty significant expenses involved in recycling: for the trucks, facilities and staff involved in curbside pickup, sorting, baling, storage, shipping and finding a market to sell to.
It’s a big commitment for any community and they need to sell those recyclables in order to recoup some of their costs.
For some items, like aluminum and paper, there is a fairly competitive market. For many plastic items, it’s a lot of investment in a “product” that doesn’t have much of a market.
So, how do we change that? How do we create a market for those plastic recyclables?
One simple way is by looking for packaging with “PCP” content (Post-Consumer Plastic), which means the package is made in part from previously recycled plastic.
We've done just that, and are excited to offer our Shower Steamers in a bag made with 30% Post-Consumer Plastic.
As manufacturers and consumers, we both can help “close the recycling circle” by seeking out packaging with PCP content.
Let’s move on from just feeling good about recycling to actually doing good for recycling!