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Glossary of Terms
Most of the plastic used in the packaging is made of six different resin types. Plastic containers are coded to assist recyclers in sorting plastic containers by resin composition.
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PETE or PET Polyethylene Terephthalate—
used in soft drink, juice, and liquor bottles and for some personal products such as mouthwash, shampoo, tooth paste containers, and oily food, can be clear or colored, but tends not to be opaque. |
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HDPE High Density Polyethylene—
used in milk, juice, and detergent bottles and many personal products such as shampoo, cleaning supplies, and in butter, cottage cheese, and some yogurt containers, can be natural or colored, and tends to be at least moderately opaque.
- HDPE bottles are produced by blow molding
- HDPE tubs are produced by injection molding
- These differ in melting temperature and viscosity, and must be kept separate from recycling even though they are the same resin.
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PVC Polyvinyl chloride—
used for some cooking oils and household products packaging, and in film for meal packaging. |
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LDPE Low density polyethylene—
used for flexible food tubs and household products packaging, often as lids, and in film for grocery, drug store, and light item bags. |
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PP Polypropylene—
used in some yogurt cups and household product packaging.
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PS Polystyrene—
a rigid plastic that can be clear (salad containers) or opaque (yogurt). PS Foamed is the same resin use to improve insulating or shock resistance prosperities in some food containers and packaging “peanuts”. |
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Other Other mixed resins—
typically composed of layers of the above resins and tend to be squeezable. (Plastic containers that are not marked in # 1 thru 6 are also considered to be #7.) |
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Unwanted “Tramp” Plastics—
are not generally acceptable for recycling collection. Examples are toys, disposable razors, plastic film, six-pack rings or unacceptable resin numbers. |
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Contamination—
The presence of incompatible materials during the final stage of recycling processing. |
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