Will the real #1 (PET) plastic cup please stand up? Well, they're all transparent, they're all standing, but only the one on the left is a #1. As readers of this blog know, Mercer County, which runs Princeton's curbside recycling program, asks us not to recycle plastics #3-7, even though these plastics are accepted and marketed at the sorting plant in New Brunswick. No verifiable reason has been given for this resistance to including the higher numbered plastics in our recycling bins. I have spoken up for inclusion, but have been unable to overcome an entrenched notion that higher numbered plastics are in some way less environmentally friendly and therefore deserve to go to the landfill.
Among the rejected is the second cup here, a #5. Used by Starbucks, it defends itself in small print near the bottom of the cup: "This polypropylene cup uses 14% less plastic and creates 45% fewer carbon emissions than a cup made from PET." Take that, all you #1s out there.
The third cup, a #6, has nothing to say for itself, but the last cup there, a #7 with the trademark "Greenware", declares itself to be eco-friendly, environmentally sustainable, compostable, and made in the U.S.A., entirely from plants. That one's headed for my compost pile to see if it actually decomposes.
If any other plastic cups would like to speak up on this issue, send in a comment.
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