Saturday, October 25, 2008
Eco-Schools
In the next week or two I will be working on a post about getting your school to be more Eco-friendly. If anyone has suggestions or things they would like to hear about, post a comment to this post and I'll try to incorporate it. :)
Monday, October 20, 2008
We recycle bottles, so why not the caps?
This is a question that has puzzled me for awhile. The answer has been found.
You can!
Even though you can, it's more difficult than rinsing out your bottles and taking them down to the local recycling center.
Plastic bottles have the numbers 1 and 2 on them. They are the most commonly found in the forms of plastic in bottles and plastic grocery/garbage bags. Since these are the most common types of plastic, it's easier to find recycling centers that will take them.
Plastic bottle caps on the otherhand, are polypropaline (PP) or #5 on the scale of different types of plastic. The melting point of PP is much higher than than the point of PEP or HDPE. (almost 100 degrees difference!) This factor alone makes caps more difficult to recycle. Centers may not have the funds to build a different structure that can work with such high ammounts of heat along with what they already have. Plus, as said in the video cited in my references, one-thousand bottle caps take up a lot less space than one thousand bottles.
If you're anything like me, you still feel bad about throwing all those caps into the garbage can when you take out your recycling. So do we have options? (of course we do!)
How to recycle caps:
•Some of your local recycling centers may take bottle caps. You just have to ask them! Some centers identify what you can recycle so look for 5's or a center that takes 1-7's.
•AVEDA (the hair/cosmetic company) is working to help recycle bottle caps. They will use the caps to make new caps and bottles for their line of products.
○ To do this: Take your caps into a local AVEDA store (Some spas and salons are AVEDA stores within themselves, just ask) and let them know you would like your caps to be recycled!
○ If you don't have an AVEDA store nearby: go to the AVEDA website. You can find a location near you, or mail your caps to a location.
References:
•http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92510162
•http://earth911.org/recycling/plastic-bottle-recycling/the-seven-types-of-plastic/
•http://aveda.aveda.com/aboutaveda/caps.asp
You can!
Even though you can, it's more difficult than rinsing out your bottles and taking them down to the local recycling center.
Plastic bottles have the numbers 1 and 2 on them. They are the most commonly found in the forms of plastic in bottles and plastic grocery/garbage bags. Since these are the most common types of plastic, it's easier to find recycling centers that will take them.
Number 1's are called Polyethylene terephthalate(PEP)
Number 2's are called High-density polyethylene(HDPE)
Plastic bottle caps on the otherhand, are polypropaline (PP) or #5 on the scale of different types of plastic. The melting point of PP is much higher than than the point of PEP or HDPE. (almost 100 degrees difference!) This factor alone makes caps more difficult to recycle. Centers may not have the funds to build a different structure that can work with such high ammounts of heat along with what they already have. Plus, as said in the video cited in my references, one-thousand bottle caps take up a lot less space than one thousand bottles.
If you're anything like me, you still feel bad about throwing all those caps into the garbage can when you take out your recycling. So do we have options? (of course we do!)
How to recycle caps:
•Some of your local recycling centers may take bottle caps. You just have to ask them! Some centers identify what you can recycle so look for 5's or a center that takes 1-7's.
•AVEDA (the hair/cosmetic company) is working to help recycle bottle caps. They will use the caps to make new caps and bottles for their line of products.
○ To do this: Take your caps into a local AVEDA store (Some spas and salons are AVEDA stores within themselves, just ask) and let them know you would like your caps to be recycled!
○ If you don't have an AVEDA store nearby: go to the AVEDA website. You can find a location near you, or mail your caps to a location.
References:
•http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=92510162
•http://earth911.org/recycling/plastic-bottle-recycling/the-seven-types-of-plastic/
•http://aveda.aveda.com/aboutaveda/caps.asp
Saturday, October 18, 2008
Brand New!
So I decided to get another blog (my last personal one burned out when I left the 7th grade). Why not? Especially after one of my teachers recommended it so I could get more writing time in.
This whole blog is going to be about changing things, whether it be in school, at home, in your community, whatever! My main focus tends to be on environmental changes (ex: recycling, using less energy, saving gas=$$! etc) but if I think of anything else to suggest changes, it'll probably end up in here too.
Hope everyone enjoys!
This whole blog is going to be about changing things, whether it be in school, at home, in your community, whatever! My main focus tends to be on environmental changes (ex: recycling, using less energy, saving gas=$$! etc) but if I think of anything else to suggest changes, it'll probably end up in here too.
Hope everyone enjoys!
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