Bay Area Sierra Club Meeting: What Actually Gets Recycled?

The February meeting will be conducted via Zoom.
(no in-person meeting)
Starts 6:30 pm for social time; 7:00 pm for program.
Here is the link for the meeting on Zoom:
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/4168201898?pwd=MzBpZ2hvUVFMckw4anlldTh6Tkh3dz09

February Meeting Program:
WHAT ACTUALLY GETS RECYCLED?

A discussion program led by Peter Bowman, a local Bay Area Sierra leader, poses the question for attendees referencing a recent SIERRA magazine article.

This program references a recent article in SIERRA Winter 2021, The Magazine of the Sierra Club:
https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2021-6-winter/stress-test/who-recycles-your-recycling
(In the hard copy magazine, pages 52-53)

Some analysts estimate that less than 10% of plastics put in curbside bins for recyclables actually get recycled (note: this percentage will vary by region or city). Given that discouraging statistic, what’s an avid recycler to do? Continue the process of cleaning plastics to make them recyclable or give it up as not worth the effort?

Of seven materials which are commonly recycled, which do you recycle, and which are actually recycled nationally?

As examples, SIERRA’s Winter 2021 issue states in regard to aluminum cans that “Nearly half of all cans are recycled.” Do you recycle all your Al cans?

What about those troublesome plastics? Will you continue to recycle them? “In theory, polypropylene (PP5) is recyclable, but there are only a few facilities in the US that accept it” (p. 53).

Treatments of other plastics have mixed results: “About a third of polyethylene terephthalate (PET, PP1) containers” are recycled. “High-density polyethylene (HDPE, PP2) was once virtually unrecyclable because it was so cheap to make”, but now the price for it has “skyrocketed” (p. 53).

Bay Area meetings are on 3rd Wednesday of the month and start at 6:30pm for social hour; speaker and discussion from 7-8:30 pm.