Why won’t recyclers take #1 or 2 plastic unless it is a bottle or has a neck?
Even though plastic bottles and tubs (example: butter or yogurt) might have the same number inside their recycling symbols, they are not really made of the same identical material. Bottles are produced through one kind of molding process and tubs through another, and these two processes require different plastic mixtures that melt at different temperatures. If these plastic containers are recycled together, the result is a mixture of material that has little value in a second round of manufacturing. If separated, they each have greater value. Unfortunately, even when plastic tubs are collected separately, they have relatively little value as a material to manufacturers.
