King County: Bag your (plastic) bags, bring'em back
SEATTLE -- Even in the land of recycling, a lot of things go to the landfill that shouldn't.
Take, for instance, plastic bags. A staggering 61,000 tons of recyclable plastic go into the King County landfill each year, and they're bags that are easily recyclable.
To get the word out, the county on Tuesday launched a new public education campaign called the Bag Your Bag program.
"And one of the things that we found with consumers is that they don't understand: A. the importance of recycling plastic bags, and B. where and how they can do that," said Patti Southard, who runs the program. "So we've partnered with a great group of retailers, big box stores like Fred Meyer and Safeway, and smaller markets like Red Apple and Metropolitan Market to get the message out."
So what happens to these plastic bags? Southard says they get made into things.
"Ninety percent of the plastic bags that are picked up a grocery retailers in King County end up getting made into recycled plastic lumber. The Trex company comes out and takes those plastic bags and turns them into benches, and decking and building material. So there are some really good options once you've gotten the bags to the grocery stores for people to recycle," she said.
One hundred and twenty five retailers throughout the county will now let you bring back plastic food bags, bread bags, dry cleaning bags and plastic wrappers from toilet paper or paper towels.
Safeway's Cherie Myers says it's just the right thing to do.
"I think it's important for people to know there's a place to recycle plastic. Sometimes we have so many plastic bags we think, 'Oh my gosh what are we doing here.' And all they need to do is bundle them up and they can recycle them and feel good about it. And it's helping everybody," she said.
So why does the county want us to bring the bags back to the store? Why not just put them in the recycle bin?
"There's a couple of challenges: one, most people don't bag their bags, which is why we've named the campaign Bag Your Bags.
So when they go to recycle the plastic bags, they throw them loose into the recycling container and it's a burden on the processors once they receive those plastic bags.
"They have to sort them, separate them, first of all and then they blow around, loose, in the recycling locations. And it's not really the best use of resources to have them go that way.The better use of the resource is to get them into a second life," said Southard.
Take, for instance, plastic bags. A staggering 61,000 tons of recyclable plastic go into the King County landfill each year, and they're bags that are easily recyclable.
To get the word out, the county on Tuesday launched a new public education campaign called the Bag Your Bag program.
"And one of the things that we found with consumers is that they don't understand: A. the importance of recycling plastic bags, and B. where and how they can do that," said Patti Southard, who runs the program. "So we've partnered with a great group of retailers, big box stores like Fred Meyer and Safeway, and smaller markets like Red Apple and Metropolitan Market to get the message out."
So what happens to these plastic bags? Southard says they get made into things.
"Ninety percent of the plastic bags that are picked up a grocery retailers in King County end up getting made into recycled plastic lumber. The Trex company comes out and takes those plastic bags and turns them into benches, and decking and building material. So there are some really good options once you've gotten the bags to the grocery stores for people to recycle," she said.
One hundred and twenty five retailers throughout the county will now let you bring back plastic food bags, bread bags, dry cleaning bags and plastic wrappers from toilet paper or paper towels.
Safeway's Cherie Myers says it's just the right thing to do.
"I think it's important for people to know there's a place to recycle plastic. Sometimes we have so many plastic bags we think, 'Oh my gosh what are we doing here.' And all they need to do is bundle them up and they can recycle them and feel good about it. And it's helping everybody," she said.
So why does the county want us to bring the bags back to the store? Why not just put them in the recycle bin?
"There's a couple of challenges: one, most people don't bag their bags, which is why we've named the campaign Bag Your Bags.
So when they go to recycle the plastic bags, they throw them loose into the recycling container and it's a burden on the processors once they receive those plastic bags.
"They have to sort them, separate them, first of all and then they blow around, loose, in the recycling locations. And it's not really the best use of resources to have them go that way.The better use of the resource is to get them into a second life," said Southard.