Recycle your #5 plastics!

I love recycling. It's an easy way to reduce your environmental footprint, and therefore I feel it's inexcusable not to be a participant. So it's no surprise that I am miffed by Rochester's (as well as most cities') lack of polypropylene processing facilities. Polypropylene is any container labeled #5: yogurt, cottage cheese, margarine, hummus, drinking straws, bottle caps, etc. My family of five eats at least four quarts of yogurt per week, and it kills me to throw away all those containers. Today I did some research, and found a solution!



I will now be mailing my #5 plastics to:

Preserve Gimme 5
823 NYS Rte 13
Cortland, NY 13045

This is a program called Preserve Gimme 5, which recycles #5 plastics. Their research has shown that "the benefits of keeping #5 plastics out of landfills and remaking them into new products outweigh the environmental impacts of shipping them back to us." To reduce the environmental impact of the process, they ask that you mail them in large quantaties in a recycled box by ground shipping.

(You can also drop #5s off at Whole Foods and other locations, but we don't have Whole Foods around here.)

I would urge everyone to take part in this cool program. As a human being- especially one in a developed country with recycling facilities- there is no excuse for negligence in regards to such an important and undemanding initiative.