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Is Plastic Recycling a Lie?

Is Plastic Recycling a Lie?

Hi Barber Community!

Welcome to our last blog post of 2021's Earth Month. Today we're going to dive into plastic recycling. Our Barber Insurance Team recycles and composts with vigor at our Downtown Santa Rosa office. We also do our best to bring in resuable water bottles and send the next generation to school with lunches packed in reusable bags, containers and the like.

We, like many, have been led to believe that the "Recycle" of "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" is just as important a factor as the "Reduce and Reuse" elements. But in recent years, as you may now, the sham that is our public recyling has been exposed to the public and, to be honest, we're still reeling from the news. We're SO well trained that the little recycle symbol on the bottom of the plastic container means it's, without a doubt, recyclable. Unfortunately, this is not the case.

In short - about 10% of what we recycle actually goes on to have another plasticky life. The other 90%? Not recyclable. They put it in the TRASH. Please don't stop recycling though! 10% of tons and tons of waste is still a lot! 

Quick tips on those numbers on the bottom of your plastics:
Recyclables labeled with 1 and 2: CAN be recycled
Recyclables labeled with 4, 5, 6 and 7: CAN SOMETIMES be recyled, but typically are not due to the expenses associated
Recyclables labeled with 3: CANNOT be recylced
Essentially, these numbers were never meant for consumers, supposedly they're for producers and manufacturers. Learn more about these labeling codes here: https://millerrecycling.com/plastics-recycling-numbers

And please, if you do anything today, read this article from NPR by which our minds have been blown: www.npr.org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled