Dining Services
Plastic
We recycle
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Polyethylene terephthalate or PET #1. Examples are clear beverage containers and plastic liquor bottles. On the bottom of the containers there should be a number 1 inside a triangle.
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High-density polyethylene or HDPE #2. Examples are clear beverage containers, milk, water and juice jugs; laundry and soap detergent bottles. On the bottom of the containers there should be a number 2 inside a triangle.
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In general, plastic liquid containers with a neck; the base needs to be larger than the opening
We do not recycle
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plastic straws, plastic forks, knives, and spoons
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plastic covers or transparencies
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plastic bags [please collect & recycle at home and grocery stores!]
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oil containers
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any plastic that does not have # 1 or # 2 imprinted somewhere on the plastic
Facts about plastic
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Plastic composes 85% of the weight in a landfill.
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By weight, over 9% of Minnesota garbage is plastic.
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26 plastic soda bottles make one polyester suit.
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35 recycled soft drink bottles will make enough fiberfill for a sleeping bag.
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1,050 recycled mild jug bottles can be made into a 6 foot park bench.
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Plastic is cheap to manufacture and appears to last forever. But lasting forever is proving to be a major environmental problem. Almost all plastics manufactured are de-gradable but not biodegradable. This is because their long polymer molecules are too large and too tightly bonded together to be broken apart and assimilated by natural organisms. So most of the plastic we consume never goes away; it just breaks down into smaller and smaller pieces. Nova, Australian Academy of Science
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Americans us approximately 7,000 plastic bottles every second or 2.5 million bottles every hour.
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Each year Americans throw away 25 billion Styrofoam cups, enough every year to circle the earth 436 times.
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Every year we make enough plastic film to shrink-wrap Texas.
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Whenever an American buys food they spend $ 1 dollar out of every eleven on packaging.
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Each year Americans throw away 6 billion plastic-encased disposable pens.
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Plastic is believed to constitute 90% of all rubbish floating in the oceans. The UN Environment Program estimated in 2006 that every square mile of ocean contains 46,000 pieces of floating plastic. Marks & Howden, "The World's Dump", Independent UK 6 FEB 08
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In the past, # 6 polystyrene plastic and other plastics have been recycled at UST, but due to depressed plastic market, area processors will only accept # 1 or # 2 plastic unless we have a very large volume of # 6 plastic recycling. Polystyrene # 6, food service packaging is one of the most visible areas of public concern about the lack of recycling possibilities. Annual sales of Polystyrene food service packaging exceed 1.5 billion pounds according to the national recycling journal Resource Recycling.
