Recycle Caps with Aveda

Mom's turtle buddy Carole told me about this great program from Aveda. Thank you Carole for being so environmentally conscience and sharing this with me.

Have you ever wondered what happens to all the plastic bottle caps in the world? Mom knows that they do not get recycled along with the plastic bottles since they are not made of the same kinds of plastic as their containers and should not be mixed with them. When plastic that can be recycled is mixed with plastic that cannot be recycled, one contaminates the other, thus reducing the value of the material and/or requiring resources to separate them before processing.

Aveda found that most of the plastic bottle caps cannot be recycled by most municipal recycling programs, so they end up in landfills or unfortunately, as litter in rivers and oceans. So what to do? Start a recycling program of course!

By joining Recycle Caps with Aveda, plastic caps can finally be recycled instead of simply thrown away. So how does it work? Caps are collected at stores and schools, then sent by Aveda to their recycler where the material is recycled into new caps and containers. The program accepts caps that are rigid polypropylene plastic, sometimes noted with a 5 in the chasing arrows recycling symbol. You will know these when you see them because these caps usually twist on with a threaded neck. Shampoo, soda, milk, and laundry detergent are examples of products that have caps that fit into this category. Aveda states that if you can bend or break the lid with your bare hand, then it does not meet the rigid plastic definition and cannot via their program.

So bring your plastic caps into an Aveda store and feel great about knowing that you are doing the right thing. No Aveda store near you? Get your school involved in the program by going to www.aveda.com/caps for details on how to set up a collection center. The school completes an enrollment form, collects caps, and ships the caps back to Aveda. What a great way to get kids involved in recycling.

Aveda is blazing the recycling trail with this great program. Hopefully additional companies will join Aveda in their committment to recycling by started their own programs. In the meantime, tell all your friends to start collecting plastic caps. Kudos to Aveda!