Recycling!

Mom is a recycling freak, but you guys already know that. She has been saving plastic bottle caps since one of my posts last December and she finally took them in to be recycled this week.

Check out this cool looking bag. Can you believe that Mom had it filled almost to the top with bottle caps? She sure did. Well, truth be told, most of the caps were from Dad. Mom stopped drinking soda from plastic bottles at the beginning of summer, but Dad still loves his soda in 2 liter bottles.


Just look at the variety of bottle caps in the bag. She has all different styles and colors. For those of you unfamiliar with the Aveda recycling program, they accept caps that are rigid polypropylene plastic, sometimes noted with a 5 in the chasing arrows recycling symbol. This includes caps that twist on with a threaded neck such as caps on shampoo, water, soda, milk and other beverage bottles, flip top caps on tubes and food product bottles (such as ketchup and mayonnaise), laundry detergents and some jar lids such as peanut butter. Mom usually doesn't see a number 5 recycling symbol on the caps, so she just throws all caps that twist with a threaded neck into her pile.


We have a little basket on our counter in the kitchen so that we remember to remove the caps before putting the bottles in the recyclable container. When the little basket gets full, the caps are moved to a larger basket that is tucked into one of our cabinets. When the larger basket gets full, it's time to go to Aveda.

Mom thinks that most people twist caps back onto bottles before throwing them into recyclable containers. This is not good because the caps are made from a different type of plastic than the bottles. Most bottles are #1 and #2, but the caps are #5. Since the two different types of plastic are 'mixed', one contaminates the other, reducing the value of the material or requiring resources to separate them before processing. So what happens? These bottles get set to the landfill! Say it isn't so! Some recycling programs do accept plastic caps, but only if they are off their containers completely. And only if your recycling program accepts #5 plastic.

Aveda recognized that most caps end up in landfills, so they started this great program. The caps get a second life as packaging and caps for Aveda products. How cool is that? The caps stay out of landfills and waterways where they can hurt wildlife.

Schools can also get involved in the program and set up collection boxes in classrooms. Mom told this program to the biology department at the college and they set up a collection box at their Earth Week events. A full collection program should roll out this fall at the college.

Mom has been thinking about starting a "Remove the Caps!" campaign to raise awareness of this plastic bottle cap issue. So many people are not aware of it and like Mom always says, everything starts with education. Cap collection boxes could be placed next to plastic bottle collection bins everywhere. She's not sure if Aveda could handle all the caps that would be collected via the campaign, but she's hoping that it would at least raise awareness of the issue and that people, even if they didn't take the caps to Aveda, would put them into their curbside recyclable container.

Please spread the word about plastic bottle caps. This is a serious issue that we have a solution for, we just need to educate people about it so that everyone is on board. To find an Aveda location near you, visit www. aveda.com.