{"id":5114,"date":"2023-04-28T11:25:25","date_gmt":"2023-04-28T18:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.pirg-test.com\/california\/?post_type=article&p=5114"},"modified":"2023-04-28T11:25:25","modified_gmt":"2023-04-28T18:25:25","slug":"can-i-recycle-that","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/dev.pirg-test.com\/california\/articles\/can-i-recycle-that\/","title":{"rendered":"Can I recycle that?"},"featured_media":47234,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":false,"_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_opengraph-description":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-title":"","_yoast_wpseo_twitter-description":""},"campaign_tax":[],"display_option":[],"issue_tax":[],"person_tax":[],"region_tax":[],"state":[7,2],"topic_tax":[145],"class_list":["post-5114","article","type-article","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":{"details":{"helper_taxonomies":{"topics":[145],"collection":false,"press_type":false,"person_type":false,"resource_type":false,"event_type":false,"campaigns":false,"department":false,"level":false,"states":[2,7],"act_option":false,"display_option":false,"primary":{"topic":145}},"featured_image":47234,"caption_override":"","excerpt":"Tens of thousands of Americans call on the FTC to prohibit the use of the word \"recyclable,\" the chasing arrows recycling symbol, or other statements that imply a product is recyclable on products that cannot be recycled.","updated_on":null,"sidebar_action":[4430],"hide_hero_image":false,"sidebar_action_query_string":""},"helper_people_group":{"title":"Authors","entities":[{"type":"dynamic","dynamic_person":{"site":4,"people":"203"},"information":{"name":"","image":null,"role":"","biography":"","contact":{"twitter":"","facebook":"","email":"","phone":""}}}]},"page_layout":[{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Everyone knows what chasing-arrows on a piece of single-use plastic packaging means: The product is recyclable.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, maybe. It depends.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Those chasing-arrows are usually accompanied by a number, and those numbers tell you <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/plasticactioncentre.ca\/directory\/plastic-by-the-numbers\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">what kind of plastic<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the material is made of. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whether an item is actually recyclable depends on which types of plastic are accepted for recycling in your local community<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Some kinds of plastic can be recycled in most places, and some cannot.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Currently, no law prohibits producers from using the symbol on non-recyclable materials, and as a result, many products that cannot be recycled come stamped with the chasing arrows symbol, easily misleading consumers.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So, really, the chasing arrows don\u2019t mean that a product is recyclable after all.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But if a piece of plastic packaging advertises in plain words that it is \u201crecyclable,\u201d or \u201cwidely recyclable,\u201d well then you know that it is recyclable, right?<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Well, again, maybe. It depends. A new \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/your-yogurt-tub-says-widely-recyclablebut-is-it-being-recycled-11660729184\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">widely recyclable<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d label was created by the plastics industry, and this label makes it look like certain plastics can be recycled when the reality is that many of them aren\u2019t accepted in most community recycling programs.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the United States, only about <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2022-05-plastic-recycled.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">5 percent<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of plastic is recycled. Most ends up in the landfill, littering our streets, or polluting our waterways and oceans.\u00a0<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">An estimated <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/feature.undp.org\/plastic-tidal-wave\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">13 million tons<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> of plastic waste reaches the ocean every year, which is the equivalent to a dump truck every minute. Over time, these items can break down into smaller and smaller pieces called microplastics. As a result, scientists have discovered plastic pollution in every corner of the globe, from the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/education.nationalgeographic.org\/resource\/plastic-bag-found-bottom-worlds-deepest-ocean-trench\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mariana Trench<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> to <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/environment\/article\/microplastics-found-near-everests-peak-highest-ever-detected-world-perpetual-planet\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Mount Everest<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. They\u2019ve also found microplastics in our food, our beverages, and <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/environment\/article\/news-plastics-microplastics-human-feces\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">inside our bodies<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, potentially exposing us to hazardous compounds and additives. By <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2019\/06\/11\/health\/microplastics-ingestion-wwf-study-scn-intl\/index.html\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">one estimate<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, we each eat a credit card\u2019s worth of plastic every single week (you read that right).<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Clearly, we need to move away from using so much single-use plastic, especially plastic that can\u2019t be recycled. Nothing we use for a few minutes should harm public health and pollute our environment for hundreds of years.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">We need companies to make less disposable stuff in the first place. We also need them to start using recycled materials to create their products, and ensure those products are designed to be recycled back into new products at the end of their life. But we first need transparency to help drive this shift. Right now, it is impossible for the marketplace to reward good actors and avoid bad actors if consumers are duped.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Federal Trade Commission is currently updating its \u201cGreen Guides,\u201d which are designed to help marketers avoid making environmental claims that mislead consumers. This is an opportunity for the agency to set the standard for what kinds of claims are acceptable and what kinds of claims should be considered misleading. That\u2019s why we <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/dev.pirg-test.com\/updates\/more-than-52000-to-ftc-crack-down-on-misleading-recyclability-claims\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">submitted more than 52,000 comments<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> from Americans all across the country calling on the FTC to take the common sense step of prohibiting the use of the word \"recyclable,\" the chasing arrows recycling symbol, or other statements that imply a product is recyclable unless the item can actually be recycled.<\/span>\r\n\r\n<span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Consumers want to make good choices for the environment and drive companies to do the same, but we first need accurate information to do so. The FTC should support truth in labeling and update the Green Guides to prevent the continued use of misleading recyclability claims.<\/span>","":null}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_large_image","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_large_image":{"width":"wide","image":"","caption_override":""}},{"acf_fc_layout":"layout_wysiwyg","_acfe_flexible_toggle":"","component_wysiwyg":{"content":"","":null}}]},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v28.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Can I recycle that?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Tens of thousands of Americans call on the FTC to prohibit the use of the word &quot;recyclable,&quot; the chasing arrows recycling symbol, or other statements that imply a product is recyclable on products that cannot be recycled.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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