I recently received an e-mail at work from our union president stating that tops should be removed from plastic bottles before they go into recycling or else the recycling workers will throw them away. Can anyone help me dispute this?
by 
roadpup2
ANSWERS: 2
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Are plastic bottle tops recyclable? No. The plastic bottle tops should be removed from the bottles and disposed of. Bottles with tops still on cause great problems for economically transporting and baling the plastic. Plastic bottles should also be squashed down to save space in your bin. http://www.salisbury.gov.uk/living/waste-and-recycling/wheelit/wheelit-faqs#wheelit-materials-tops How should I recycle plastic bottles? Plastic bottles should be cleaned if necessary and have their tops removed before being recycled. This is so that they can be crushed flat. http://www.recyclenow.com/what_more_can_i_do/can_it_be_recycled/plastic_bottles.html I picked just two sites out of many, one from the UK one from the USA - It appears that although you could try to refute this you most likely would be wrong. That depends on who recycles your plastic. It appears that caps are a problem and should be removed. Sorry.
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The tops can be recycled but they may not be in practice. Even if they are not recycled (they are sometimes made from a different type of plastic) they need not cause the bottle to be discarded. To dispute this fact why not check with the recycling workers directly so that they can tell you if they actually discard the bottles. Where is this magical place where the bottles are discarded? Tell them you want to go there and see bottles being discarded. It may not exist. They may simply want you to do the work of removing the tops instead of them.
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