Unfortunately, all plastics are not created equally. The recycling symbol on a plastic product does not automatically mean that item is recyclable in the Denver Recycles program.
Plastics vary greatly by their resin types and how they are manufactured. Plastic are categorized into seven general resin types. There are also two common manufacturing processes, plastic bottles are “blow molded;” whereas, most plastic tubs are “injection molded.” As a result of the different resin types, the different manufacturing processes, and the different mixes of chemical additives (dyes, plasticizers, UV inhibitors, softeners, adhesives and more) plastics melt at different temperatures, have different physical properties and as such need to be recycled differently.
Once plastics are separated into their varying categories they must then be shipped to a recycler. The distance to these plastic markets can be large and the cost to ship certain types of plastic to distant processing facilities may simply be more expensive than the material’s value. Some markets are very limited and are overstocked with plastics for recycling.
In Denver, we have access to reliable and stable markets for plastic bottles only. While there are markets for some plastic tubs, they are currently unreliable and often expensive. When you recycle the correct items in your Denver Recycles cart we guarantee that your materials will be recycled. If we were to accept additional plastic containers like tubs, we could not be confident in our ability to consistently recycle them. As such, a decision was made not to add these items to our list of acceptable recyclables until the markets become more stable and we can guarantee that they get recycled.