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  Home Page » News » Earth » Understanding Of No 5 Tubs Needs Some Work

Understanding of No. 5 tubs needs some work

by Dale Rodebaugh
Herald Staff Writer The Durango Natural Foods campaign to recycle No. 5 plastic tubs has picked up speed since the cooperative began accepting the polypropylene containers Aug. 1, said Jules Masterjohn, the store's community outreach coordinator.

No one else in the immediate area is accepting No. 5 tubs.

The store sends the tubs to Preserve Products in Cortland, N.Y., where they're recycled to manufacture toiletry items (toothbrushes), tableware (plates and glasses) and kitchen items (bowls and food storage units). Using recycled instead of virgin polypropylene uses 54 percent less water, 75 percent less oil, 48 percent less coal, 77 percent less natural gas and 46 percent less electricity, the company says.

Preserve pays the freight for the plastic that large-quantity partners such as Whole Foods Market send. Not so for Durango Natural Foods, which charges a nickel per container from tub recyclers to help defray the cost of shipment. Sugnet & Moore Environmental consulting firm in Durango makes up the difference.

Members of the Fort Lewis College Environmental Center's Zero Waste Team volunteer to sort and pack the tubs for shipping. It's a tedious task because they inspect each tub to make sure it's a No. 5 and that it's clean, Masterjohn said.

As of last Friday, the Zero Waste volunteers had packed almost 3,000 tubs for shipments of 55, 100 and 125 pounds, Masterjohn said.

Unfortunately, some recyclers drop off No. 5 containers that the store can't recycle, Masterjohn said. Among No. 5 containers on the no-go list are prescription-medicine vials, a tub that displays a number in addition to the 5 in the triangular recycling symbol, and house paint buckets that have metal handles or a metal ring on the top or bottom. The store also doesn't accept bottles of No. 1 and No. 2 plastic, she said.

“Some people are upset that we don't take certain items," Masterjohn said. “But it's too much work to remove metal rings, clean paint or other substances, and dispose of unwanted plastics."

Masterjohn estimated that about 10 to 15 percent of items are unacceptable. The ideal tubs are those with a wide mouth and small base - think quart- and pint-sized yogurt and cottage cheese - because they nest easily when stacked. Individual yogurt tubs are accepted but create a problem because they must be accommodated in leftover space in boxes. The bulk that individual yogurt tubs create makes shipping more costly because Federal Express, which Masterjohn uses to send packages to Preserve, charges for the size of the package in addition to its weight.

daler@durangoherald.com

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