BOISE, Idaho — The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) declared November 15 America Recycles Day as part of an effort to recycle 50% of qualifying materials by the year 2030.
The current recycling rate is 32.1%, according to the EPA. That's up from less than 7% in 1960. However, not everything can be repurposed and recycling invalid materials can create more problems than the action originally aimed to fix.
"Plastics are definitely the most complicated part of recycling," Boise Materials Program Manager Peter McCullough said. "We always say, 'When in doubt, throw it out.' So, if you find something, you can't find a symbol on it, you don't know what it is, we'd rather you throw it out."
Most plastics are labeled with a triangular recycling logo and a number. Boise's blue recycle bins accept plastic numbers one and two; they tend to be bottles.
"There are there are some nuances to that. One of them being [super thin bottles]. You can kind of hear how crinkly that is," McCullough said. "They get flattened when the truck compacts the recycling. The thin bottles often cannot be separated and are put in with the paper. It destroys the paper bail. We just ask people with the crinkly bottles to throw them in the trash."
Boise residents can recycle glass; however, they must sign up for curbside pickup service. The bottles must be collected in a separate glass-only bin. Boiseans can also drop glass bottles off at one of several locations. A local company repurposes the glass for sandblasting, according to McCullough.
Boise is a participating city in the Hefty ReNew Orange Bag Program. The Hefty bags accept hard-to-recycle plastics including numbers 4, 5, 6, and 7. This could be anything from a yogurt container to candy wrappers.
"That the confidence [in Boise recycling] is high. These bottles will be recycled. It's not a myth, right?" McCullough said. "The recycling facility here in Boise doesn't send anything overseas at this time. They used to, but now almost all our materials are sent to different places in the United States. That's just based off who will pay the most for the material."
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