Re: [smvchairs319] Recycling plastic bags in Mountain View
Bruce England
In short, we've been working quite a bit on this topic starting with
earlier efforts through the Mountain View Environmental
Sustainability Task Force (you can see our final report, if you're
interested, at:
http://www.bruceengland.com/portfolio/civic/MVESTF-finalReport.pdf)
We've been having ongoing discussions with City staff, primarily Lori
Topley, regarding present and future options, including the City's
contract, and we're striving to educate the public regarding
stressing reduction and reuse over recycling, as recycling itself can
be quite energy intensive, toxins producing, and markets for recycled
materials can fluctuate wildly.
We don't have an Action Team dedicated to this as yet, but a number
of our members, myself included, are very interested in having one;
meanwhile, we do what we can ad hoc.
If you would be interested in actively starting one up, I would be
more than happy to help you to do that and to support your efforts
every step of the way. Let me know if you would.
Thanks for your comments, and bye for now!
Bruce England
Green Mountain View co-chair
At 3:13 PM -0700 8/21/09, Anne Halkedis wrote:
>Hi there:
>I learned about your group from an article in the Mountain View Voice,
>and am happy you exist! I have a quick question; I was very surprised
>to learn recently that the city of Mountain View does not recycle
>plastic bags - even those labeled 1-7 (the numbers for the other
>plastics they recycle). When contacting the city, I was told that
>there is not a good market for this type of recyclable material, and
>that grocery stores only recycle grocery bags because state law
>requires it. Furthermore, the city's garbage/recycling contract is not
>up for renewal until 2013 so there is no possibility of this changing
>before then.
>
>While I personally use re-usable bags as often as possible, I still do
>end up with some amount of plastic bags (packing from packages, dry
>cleaning, etc.) and am sad that they can't be recycled. Do you have
>any thoughts or action items on this topic? Any locations you know of
>where I can go to recycle? I've been unsuccessful in my search so far.
>
>Cheers, Anne
Heidi
http://plasticbagrecycling.org
I'm not sure how up to date the "consumer" section is on where to
recycle bags in MV, but you can have a look and then call the local
grocery stores or visit them to find out which bags they'll take for
recycling. All large grocery stores should have some kind of
collection container for plastic bags. Sometimes they'll take more
than just their own plastic bags as long as they are clean and dry
polyethylene plastic (PE, #2 or #4).
Hope that helps.