Recycle Your #5 Plastic with Gimme 5
12:00 AM Posted by Mommy Is Green
For a while, I was very frustrated with the lack of polypropylene #5 plastic recycling in my area. Often, communities accept #1 and #2 plastics but what about the #5s? It seems the most common plastics I have in my household are #1, #2 & #5. So what do I do with my #5 containers? The answer is clear to me now. It's the Gimme 5 program!
The Gimme 5 program allows you to drop off your #5 plastics and used Brita pitcher filters at participating Whole Foods Markets (look for the Gimme 5 bin) to be recycled. If you don't live near a Whole Foods Market, like me, you can mail in your #5s to be recycled right here in the USA!When your #5s are recycled they become Preserve toothbrushes and razors. Those can then be recycled as well. And to make that easy, Preserve offers a printable postage-paid label to return your Preserve toothbrushes, razors and tongue cleaners if you don't have a Gimme 5 station in your area. How easy is that?!
Back in January, I wrote a post about my experience with the Preserve toothbrush. I really liked it and I'm still using their toothbrushes. I think it is wonderful that I'm using a recycled product that can also be recycled again! The Preserve toothbrushes, razor handles and tongue cleaners are recycled and made into plastic lumber for park benches, decks and more. I find that extremely cool!From the Preserve Gimme 5 press release (March 20, 2010):
"On this first day of spring, Preserve®, the leading recycled products company, has announced the second year of its innovative Gimme 5 Program with new and returning partners: natural personal care leader Tom’s of Maine, natural and organic foods retailer Whole Foods Market, organic yogurt maker Stonyfield Farm, and water filtering company Brita and its FilterForGood campaign.
The program started in January 2009 and, in its first year, collected more than 45,000 pounds of materials, the equivalent of more than 2.9 million 6 oz. yogurt cups. This year, the program expects to collect three to four times that volume of #5 plastic thanks to an expanded number of Gimme 5 drop-off locations at Whole Foods Market stores across the nation and even higher levels of participation at existing locations."
Wow, that's a lot of yogurt cups! We go through three Stonyfield yogurts a day in my household so I am thrilled to have a way to recycle the cups. I'm also happy that I can recycle my Brita pitcher filters as well because filtered water is something I cannot live without. Gimme 5 helps me tackle two of my recycling issues. I'm extremely grateful for that.
I really believe in this program. I'm hoping more people learn about it and take advantage of this recycling opportunity. Let's help Preserve, their partners, and the planet by participating in the program.
Happy recycling!
I did not receive any compensation for this post. I'm just passing along some
information I found helpful.
information I found helpful.
April 13, 2010 4:25 PM
Great post, thanks Victoria! I actually wrote about recycling yesterday as well, come check it out :)
http://molly-walkingthroughlife.blogspot.com/