OCRRA to vote today on adding No. 5 plastic to blue bins in Onondaga County

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OCRRA to vote today on adding No. 5 plastic to blue bins in Onondaga County
Published: Tuesday, July 13, 2010, 10:59 PM
Marie Morelli / The Post-Standard
http://www.syracuse.com/news/index.ssf/2010/07/ocrra_to_vote_today_on_adding.html

Syracuse, NY -- The Onondaga County Resource Recovery Agency plans to add yogurt cups and margarine tubs to the recyclables collected in blue bins.
The addition of No. 5 plastic — polypropylene — comes as the agency marks 20 years of mandatory recycling. If approved today by the agency’s board of directors, the decision would divert about 500 tons of No. 5 plastic from the trash each year.
While that’s a fraction of the 300,000 tons of garbage the agency burns in its waste-to-energy plant on Rock Cut Road in Jamesville, 500 tons is nothing to sneeze at.
County residents annually recycle about 40,000 tons of newspaper, junk mail, cardboard, pizza boxes, juice boxes and containers made from glass, metal, and No. 1 and No. 2 plastic.
OCRRA waited to add No. 5 plastic to its roster of recyclables until it was clear there would be a viable, stable and long-term market for the reclaimed polypropylene.
“If we’re asking people to recycle it, are we confident it’s going to go into the blue bin and then be recycled into another product?” Tom Rhoads, OCRRA’s executive director, asked Tuesday at a meeting of The Post-Standard’s editorial board. “We want to make sure there is a good robust market, that these things are going to be recovered and not put into a landfill in Iowa.”
Polypropylene containers are cleaned, turned into pellets or flakes, melted down and made into new products, such as toothbrush handles and fibers for athletic clothing, said Andrew Radin, director of recycling and waste reduction for the agency.

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