Haines Friends of Recycling now accepts “number five” plastic at its recycling center, 2.5 Mile Small Tracts Road. Such plastics include most yogurt and cottage cheese containers.
Melissa Aronson, HFR chair, said the plastic has been collected on a trial basis since Saturday.
“We make $300 a ton, more or less, on one and two plastic,” Aronson said. “We make $30 a ton on number five, so a tenth of the amount, but we know that there’s a demand for this. We want to do this, but we really do need people to help us by sorting their plastics carefully.”
She said the HFR board chose to add number five plastic because “there’s a lot of it” and “we try to meet the needs of the community on recycling as best we can.”
“What’s really important is that people look at the number in the chasing arrows on the container. There’s a little triangle with arrows, look at that, and please make sure to sort carefully, because if people don’t sort, then the staff or volunteers have to do it.”
The center has “24/7 collection” for “number one, number two and number five plastic, for all of the paper products, including flattened cardboard, and for tin and aluminum,” she said.
“The only thing that we have to have somebody there for would be fluorescent tubes,” Aronson said. “Everything else we can take, and it’s constantly open.”
She noted HFR currently is unable to recycle lids, for any type of plastic.
For more information on HFR, visit www.hainesrecycle.org.