I don’t live near a Gimme 5 retail location. I’d like to mail some #5 plastic but why doesn’t Preserve pay for shipping?
Nothing would make us happier than to be able to pay the shipping for every person willing to collect, clean, pack, and send their used #5 plastic to us. However, as a small, rapidly-growing company, we do not have the financial wherewithal to finance this type of program. We are doing everything we can to help consumers divert plastic from landfills, but the shipping costs for a mail-back recycling program are prohibitively expensive. We hope that Gimme 5 will draw attention to the sheer volume of #5 that is being sent to landfills. Eventually there may be more efficient, cost effective ways to collect and recycle #5. A number of Whole Foods Markets and a few other stores have partnered with us to host Gimme 5 collection bins. (A list of these stores is available here) The efficiencies found in gathering hundreds of pounds of plastic at a time, coupled with support from sponsors, makes this program cost-effective for us. As we learn from this program, we hope to expand it to additiona