So what really is recycleable?

If you can believe it I get asked that question a lot lately. Blame it on Al Gore and his tree-hugging friends. Don't want to poo poo them; I am not. Perhaps just some light hearted poking is all that is intended.

What really is GREEN? In a word -- Plastic.

But here is my take on it. What really is considered recycleable?

A lot of things and then again not so many. Let's focus on two groups -- paper and plastic.

Paper can be recycled to some degree. The paper itself can be reused or repulped. The glue sticking to it or any other sort of contamiant cannot. It has to be removed first. So those newspaper drives of old with those stacks of bundled newspapers reaching the rafters for some charity drive are completely recycleable. Magazines with the glossy pages are not. Why? The varnish they place on the paper to make them shiny prevents proper pulping of the paper to turn it into reusable material. Those DVD cases that meld paper with plastic can't because the glue on the paperboard is not water soluable. That means you have to rip the glue off the paper before you can recycle them. Those boxes your X-box 360 or Sony Playstation 3 comes in with the shiny outter printing -- not recyclable. It's the printed side that is pressed onto the cardboard box. Once again it's the process that prevents breaking the box down into pulp properly -- or should I say cheaply.

Now plastic, that is a different story. See those chasing arrows? It's called a recycle symbol. The American Plastics Council in their infinite wisdom decided to come up with an easy visual aide to help the layperson (that's you) find out what sort of plastic your cup is made out of and the recycler to sort through the various types of plastic. Glue? That is washed off in the process of removing contaiments. Labels, also washed off and removed during the recycling process. Metal contamination, they have strong magnets and metal detectors to remove them in-process. Even a metalized CD or DVD disc (with the shiny metal finish) can be recycled. I ahve seen it done and they use the recycled resin for high end spindles for disc replication. See where I am going with this?

Bottom line; plastic wins hands down. Game. Set. Match.

And guess what. That cheap DVD box you bought at Big Lots for under $5.00 for a dozen; guess what they are made out of? Virgin material polypropylene? Don't make me laugh. Smell it. That is the smell of 100% REcycled plastic.