Depending on the market, the payout is usually 5 cents to 9 cents for steel and about 35 cents to 45 cents for food-grade aluminum, according to Hudack. A well-intentioned person who would need to drive a significant distance to drop off a small number of caps at a metal recycler might want to evaluate whether recycling the metal is worth the environmental impacts of a road trip.
Pickens said that coatings usually are not an issue, because they burn off when the metal is melted. Sheldon Hoffman, owner of American Metal Recycling, said acceptability of a metal lid with a non-metal coating— such as rubber, plastic, or other material — would depend on the material, whether that material needed to be removed, and if removing that unwanted material would be worth the effort to reclaim the metal.
That way, the small lids and caps will pass through the automated sorting process without dropping out prematurely.
Chelsea Odum, education and program coordinator for Resource Depot , a nonprofit creative reuse center in Florida, offered a few other crafty ideas. Decorate the inside of the lids or caps with paint, photos, or other embellishments. Drill a hole and hang them as ornaments. Glue on a pin-back and wear. Or glue onto a magnet and pop them on the refrigerator. Odum also suggested making kid-friendly musical instruments. Caps offer a pleasant rattling sound.
Or stretch rubber bands of different sizes and tensions around a lid for a guitar-like instrument for youngsters. Speaking of art, assorted lids are perfect as a palette for squirting dabs of paint during an art project. This article was originally published on July 11, Patti began her writing career as a staff writer for the South Florida Sun Sentinel.
For years, consumers have been told to remove the caps and lids on plastic bottles and containers before recycling. That is now changing at the recommendation of the plastics recycling industry itself. The plastics recycling industry is now recommending that consumers replace caps and lids on plastic bottles and containers they recycle. This is part of an effort to increase the amount of material collected and to avoid sending consumers conflicting messages.
Our members are reporting a growing demand for the caps themselves and we want to assure recycling coordinators, materials recovery facilities operators and other collectors of recyclables that plastics recyclers will process these bottles and recover the caps for recycling purposes. There, the truck will dump all of the materials it has collected on to a cement floor. The recyclables are then unloaded on to a sorting line.
The sorting line is comprised of conveyor belts moving through different stations. A huge magnet removes the soup cans and another piece of machinery removes the aluminum cans. During this process, materials are separated by size, and the bottle caps get lost here — they fall through the separating screens before there is a chance to recycle them. So instead, place an empty can of soup next to your recycling station and use that to collect your bottle caps that are metal. Put your caps and lids on it, and use it until it is full.
Then crimp it closed and recycle it. Now the caps will not get lost. Electronics such as cellphones, computers, corporate IT assets like network servers, and other forms of popular e-waste all have a purpose outside of a landfill — just like the humble bottle cap. I love collecting plastic caps! In my elementary school, we used to have competitions to collect them.
We would come in with bags and bags full of them and if our class won, we would get a pizza party. Thanks for the story, Pam. The more children can get involved at an early stage, the better off our planet will be! Please be advised that the majority of recycling centers still cannot recycle metal bottle caps in this manner. This information was provided to me by the Seattle public recycling system which I believe is one of the largest and most accommodating in the country.
0コメント