Recycle Plastic No 5

choi

Staphanie Strom, Rethinking Recycling. New York Times, Mar
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/2 ... ecyclings-cost.html

Five consecutive paragraphs:

"Stonyfield Farm, the New Hampshire yogurt maker, has had more success with its containers. By chance, Eric Hudson, the founder of Preserve, a company created in 1996 to create products out of recycled materials, bumped into an executive from Stonyfield Farm. Stonyfield has the kind of customers who 'call asking, "Have you considered putting your products in glass?"' according to Amy Elkes, its brand program and consumer insights manager, and it was eager to find a way to recycle its yogurt cups.

"Despite its wholesome image, yogurt, one of the most widely sold dairy products, is largely sold in polypropylene, or No. 5, plastic cups, which most municipalities do not recycle.

"After a meeting with Mr Hudson, Stonyfield told its customers that they could mail in their used cups for recycling. About 200 customers responded.

"Finally, in 2008, the company struck a deal to put collection bins in Whole Foods stores, and the effort took off. Customers can take any No 5 container to Whole Foods stores — margarine tubs, other brands’ yogurt containers — where they are collected, taken to a plant for processing, and then turned into toothbrushes and razors by Preserve.

"Last year, some 11 million six-ounce No 5 yogurt cups were collected through the program, up from 2.3 million in 2009, according to Stonyfield.

My comment:
(a) There is no need to read the rest.
(b) Stonyfield Farm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonyfield_Farm
(Founded 1983; Headquarters  Londonderry, New Hampshire; makes the number-one selling brand of organic yogurt and number-three overall yogurt brand in the United States, according to Fortune magazine)
() polypropylene
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polypropylene
(section 5 Applications: Since polypropylene is resistant to fatigue, most plastic living hinges, such as those on flip-top bottles, are made from this material + Its heat resistance; has the number "5" as its resin identification code)
(d) The recycler Preserve is headquaertered in Waltham (next to Cambridge), Massachusetts but mail-in of No 5 to be recycled is addressed to its sorting facility in Cortland, New York.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cortland,_New_York
(e) Boston recycles all soerts of plastics (but not styrofoam).