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GO GREEN! Choose a recycled patio furniture set today!

Plastic recycling is the process of recovering scrap or waste plastics and reprocessing the material into useful products, sometimes completely different in form from their original state. For instance, this could mean melting down soft drink bottles then casting them as plastic patio furniture, chairs and tables.

Plastic recycling rates lag far behind those of other items, such as newspaper (about 80%) and cardboard (about 70%). Low national plastic recycling rates have been due to the complexity of sorting and processing, unfavorable economics, and consumer confusion about which plastics can actually be recycled. Part of the confusion has been due to the recycling symbol that is usually on all plastic items. This symbol is called a resin identification code. It is stamped or printed on the bottom of containers and surrounded by a a triangle of arrows. (See the table in Plastic.) The intent of these arrows was to make it easier to identify plastics for recycling. The recycling symbol doesn’t necessarily mean that the item will be accepted by residential recycling programs. They just indicate the plastic resin content.