This Earth Day, do you know which plastics can be recycled?

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) - Earth Day is less than a week away, on April 22. This year’s theme is “Planet versus Plastics,” an initiative to get people to reduce their use of plastics.

Every year, about 350 million tons of plastic is produced, which causes significant environmental issues, ending up in waterways and groundwater.

There are thousands of different types of plastics. Many of them aren’t recyclable. Some that are recyclable include laundry detergent, cottage cheese and yogurt containers and juice bottles.

Plastic doesn’t break down the way that things like paper and cardboard do, so reducing the amount of plastic you use and recycling what you can would have a big impact.

“Natural fibers like paper and wood eventually do biodegrade. They actually break down into molecules. Plastic doesn’t do that. It breaks down to the point that it gets to be microplastics and it can take a very long time -- tens to hundreds of years depending on the type of plastic,” Mark Walter, business development manager for Brown County Port and Resource Recovery, said.

One of the biggest sources of plastics they see at Brown County’s Port and Resource Recovery Center in Ashwaubenon are plastic shopping bags. Those can’t be put in your household recycling bin, they need to be taken to dedicated drop-off sites -- check with the supermarkets or retail stores you frequent. Switching to reusable bags would be one way to keep plastic out of the environment.

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There’s also an app called Better Bin that can help you know what is recyclable and what’s not. You easily scan barcodes on items -- you can do this at home or when you’re grocery shopping, before you buy something -- and find out if you can recycle it.

It’s free, and you can even earn points to redeem for gift cards each time you scan and recycle something.

“If each person just reduced their use of plastic by one piece, how many recycling carts does that fill? How many recycling trucks? If every person just makes a little effort it has a huge impact for all of us,” Walter said.

Better Bin for iOS: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/betterbin/id1582893830

Better Bin for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.betterbin.nativeclient&gl=US

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