Re: [greenyes] Wal-M.A.R.T.'s shopping bag recycling collection

[Michele Raymond <michele@no.address>]

If I may make a point of info

The Canadians had some success with plastic bag recycling because they USED 
less HDPE  mostly LDPE was used -- I dont know if this changed.

The HDPE is used for crackle think --  It seems that if more bags were made 
of the same resin with less  colorings, bags might be easier to 
recycle.  Its not economic to sort bags in the US I understand.

Industry in N.A BALKS at any NOTION of controls on design, but I have to 
say that the Japanese are doing very well with their voluntary design 
agreement on PET bottles  Bear in mind they have NO SPACE and a very 
homogenous, cooperative culture.

Frankly, some of the ideas I saw presented by McDonough in his "cradle to 
cradle"  stuff would almost require industry agreements to make any system 
work.

Just food for thought.

Michele Raymond
Publisher
State Recycling Laws Update



At 10:24 AM 12/9/2004 -0600, Stephan Pollard wrote:
> All,
>
> Can anyone offer/direct me to substantive evidence that the corporation is 
> indeed directing their collections of shopping bags to 
> recyclers/manufacturers who are turning the material into useable products 
> and that the plastic isn't being used in Waste to Energy (WTE) 
> applications or landfilled?
>
> Relatedly, as many of you well know, not all plastic film is made of the 
> same type of plastic and that chemistry matters!  Wal-M.A.R.T.'s 
> collection boxes are full of customer returned #2 (HDPE) bags (theirs and 
> other store's), #4 (LDPE) bags, other plastic, and residuals.  Does anyone 
> know what exactly happens to the individual material categories in this 
> co-mingled collection?
>
> Happy Holidays
> Stephan

Michele Raymond
Publisher
Recycling Laws International/ State Recycling Laws Update
5111 Berwyn Rd. Ste 115 College Park, MD 20740)
301/345-4237   Fax 345-4768
http://www.raymond.com