An Update on #5 Plastic Recycling
An Update on #5 Plastic Recycling
Some of the most frequent questions I get asked on this site are about plastics recycling. And one type of plastic that is particularly troublesome for most people is polypropylene, or #5 plastic, also called 5 PP. Many food products come packaged in #5 plastic tubs. Some of the most common #5 plastic items are soup takeout containers, and dairy tubs like butter tubs, yogurt tubs, cream cheese tubs and so on. Let’s discuss the current state of #5 plastic recycling in the United States.
Plastic Recycling Doesn’t Work Very Well
For many of us, a greater variety of plastic products used to be accepted in our recycling bins when we sent our recycling to China, and then in 2017 when China stopped taking our recyclables, many recycling programs in the U.S. started limiting acceptable plastics to bottles and jugs only, or simply not taking any plastic at all. Visit this article for a more in-depth discussion of why plastics recycling is in the state it is in.
Then there used to be a few programs that would accept #5 plastic via drop-off or mail-in programs, the main one being a program called “Gimme 5” which was run by a company named Preserve. They accepted #5 plastics in drop-off bins at Whole Foods stores and you could also mail #5 plastic to them. But that program went on hold since at start of the Covid-19 pandemic and then was completely eliminated as of summer 2022.
Visit this link for more information about Preserve’s decision to cancel this program.
That was pretty much the last free (or at least free aside from mailing costs) option available to anyone who doesn’t have local option for recycling #5 plastic, and now it is gone too. I will be constantly looking for new avenues for recycling this type of plastic, but unfortunately, right now if your community doesn’t take #5 plastic, there just aren’t any good options.
Ways to Recycle #5 Plastic for the Extra Motivated
- Purchase a Terracycle box. If you are REALLY motivated to recycle #5 plastic polypropylene tubs, you could purchase a Dairy Tubs Terracyle box. After you fill the box, you will send it back to Terracycle and they will recycle the plastic into new products. This is an expensive option for home use (a small box starts at $76), but it could make sense for a retail establishment to bring people in the door, or perhaps for a school.
- Find someone in another local community that accepts #5 plastic to take your tubs. I throw this option in because if your county is like mine, we have multiple different waste haulers and each city contracts on their own. The town right next to mine recently started accepting #5 again, but mine still does not. So I gather up my #5 plastics and give them to a friend in that town who recycles it for us. You might also be able to drop it at that city’s recycling transfer station if they allow drop-off items from non-residents.
- Prescription bottles can be mailed to Matthew 25 Ministries.
- Find a member of Precious Plastic near you. There is a growing worldwide community of DIY plastic recyclers that are being organized under the name “Precious Plastic.” You could check the Precious Plastic Community Map and see if there are any groups near you that would accept #5 plastic at a drop-off site.
Unfortunately, this is about it for your options to recycle 5 PP plastic. If you know of any organization that takes #5 plastic whether by drop-off or by mail-in, please let me know, because I know people are looking for an outlet for recycling these products.
[ This article was updated on Oct. 10, 2022 ]
Just fell upon ur site…love the name!! It is hard to be green and it shouldn’t be or take so much time and energy?? How do we do better than exhausting ourselves being mindful!!
Thanks Anita! I totally agree, it shouldn’t be this difficult to be green, but the way modern society and consumerism are set up, it’s all working against us.
I think a big piece of the puzzle is passing regulations to try to get manufacturers to step up and take responsibility for the unrecyclable packaging they are practically forcing on us. And we need more bottle bills and creative solutions for reuse rather than disposable everything. I recently did a summary of a great documentary called The Story of Plastic which does a fantastic job explaining how things got this way and what we’re up against.
https://greenandgrumpy.com/the-story-of-plastic-a-summary/
https://greenandgrumpy.com/its-time-to-hold-manufacturers-responsible-for-plastic-pollution/
It is so frustrating, is it not? To want to do the right thing, but there is no possible way to do it?
I’m at my wits end-I have a LOT of lids, cpas, etc, and don’t know what to do with them.
Your website is super, BTW. Such an apt name. It sadly has to come to that.
Yes, the whole state of recycling is just extremely frustrating…
I know this is on the other side of the planet so not completely relevant to your situation, but this is something we are doing in New Zealand: https://www.mitre10.co.nz/potrecycling
Nice! Wish we had that over here…
Is there a way to contact Terracycle? The contact us section didn’t allow me to actually contact them. I’m curious as to whether they only want dairy containers marked #5 PP or if #5 PP containers in general are acceptable. I have a lot of these I had been saving for Preserve’s Gimme 5 and I’m willing to use Terracycle if they will recycle them.
Here you go: https://help.us.terracycle.com/hc/en-us/articles/360060677212-How-can-I-contact-Customer-Support-
Thanks for keeping us up to date: I was about to send a box of #5 PP to Preserve; obviously I will need to wait until they start taking stuff again. I was very disappointed when Whole Foods stopped taking #5s.
Unfortunately Preserve will not be restarting the Gimme 5 program. I will be updating this article.
Hello!
Thank you so much for this resource! I live in Redmond, WA and clicked on the link near me in cottage lake, but it ended in a dead-end. It would be lovely to have you update your links/contacts so they are still relevant. Thank you so much for what you do!
Loryann
Hi Loryann, are you referring to the Precious Plastics map? If there are outdated links on the map, you’d need to let Precious Plastic know about it, I don’t manage that site.
soon guys! PureCycle is going to change plastic recycling as we know it…. http://www.purecycle.com
If this is going to enable #5 plastic recycling to available in more communities around the country, I’ll be very glad. My town still doesn’t accept #5 polypropylene.
This company called “Hydro Blox” (North Western PA) collects used plastic to manufacture their products that solve drainage problem. https://www.hydroblox.com/projects-7 https://www.hydroblox.com/
And, the excellent recycling company called “Michael Brothers” of Pittsburgh, PA helps collect #1~#7 plastic. Then periodically those plastic collection from the local Pittsburgh residents will be transported by Michael Brothers’ truck to Hydro Blox company.