California Plastics Recycling

California Integrated Waste Management Board, State of California, Plastics Waste Management Alternatives Use, Recyclability, and Disposal. California Integrated Waste Management Board, Sacramento, 1992. 

Plastic Recycling Rate in California, Reuse/Reticle, April 1998, p. 30. 

In 1992, Volvo built an aluminum-bodied hybrid Environmental Concept Car (ECC) to California emission mandates. It had the recyclable plastic panels and water-based paints that are used by Volvo. A series hybrid drive train was used where a diesel gas turbine drives a generator to charge a battery pack to power an electric motor. The system is complex, but the car achieves good performance with low emissions and a 400-mile range. 

In the US, plastics is the largest growing waste stream, rising from less than 5 wt% of total mnnicipal solid waste (MSW) in 1980 to over 11 wt% today. In 2001, of approximately 25 million tons of waste plastic, only abont 1 million tons were recycled [1], In California and elsewhere, waste plastic is a major issne dne to the growing cost of landfilling. Even plastic which is collected and separated often gets sent to landfills due to lack of a snfficient market [2]. While state law in California has set a recycle rate at 25%, the rate has actnally been declining in recent years, from 24.6% in 1995 to only 17.9% in 1999 [3]. 

In 1992, Volvo built an aluminum-bodied hybrid Environmental Concept Car (ECC) to California emission mandates. It had the recyclable plastic panels and water-based paints that are used in a Volvo. 

In three states, Oregon, California, and Wisconsin, iaws have been enacted to require plastic containers to meet certain criteria invoiving recycling rate, recycled content, reuse, or source reduction. A brief review of the iegislation is presented next. 

California, Oregon, and Wisconsin have laws that require recycled content in some plastic containers. The Wisconsin law requires at least 10% recycled or remanufactured content in plastic containers except those for food, beverages, drugs, and cosmetics. There has evidently been little enforcement of this law, and it has had little effect. 

CalRecycle. California department of resources recycling and recovery 2009 statewide recycling rate for plastic carryout bags. 2009. Available at http //www.calrecycle.ca.gov/ Plastics/AtStore/AnnualRate/2009Rate.htm Summary. Accessed Oct 6, 2014. 

The new Environmental Nature Center building in Newport Beach, California incorporates many sustainable features like photovoltaic roof, composite wood products, renewable materials, water efficient fixtures, natural ventilation, and many others. Visible here is the building s composite siding that is made from wood by-products and recycled plastic but looks like wood. (GlPhotoStock/ Photo Researchers, Inc.)... 

California s Trash Bag Recycled Content Act, passed in the early 1990s, requires plastic trash bag manufacturers selling trash bags in... 

P.5.6 In California, how much recycling content is required in plastic container products sold that is technologically feasible ... 

P.5.7 In California, what can a company do if the company cannot find any acceptable recycled polyethylene for plastic bags ... 

The states of California and Oregon have specific regulations which deal with rigid plastic containers. Wisconsin also has a recycled content law and regulations. 

California recently extended its refund value system to a wide variety of beverages, again in an explicit attempt to increase recycling of plastic bottles. Effective in January 2000, water and fruit juice containers are included, along with several other beverages (see Table 12.2). This has produced an increase in the containers covered of about 20 percent and a decrease, at least temporarily, in recycling rates. Redemption rates for the first half of 2000 fell to 70 percent from 80 percent in the first half of 1999. The decline was especially steep for PET, which dropped from 83 percent to 40 percent. The overall California redemption rate in 1999 for containers covered by the refund value system was 76 percent. The rate in the second half of the year was lower than in the first half, as has been the case for the last several years. 

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