Engineering and fabrication

Why are most plastic lids not recyclable, even if the container it comes with is?

And why is the container my butter comes in made of recyclable plastic, but the container the yogurt is made of non-recyclable plastic?

Public Comments

1. plastic lids are usually thicker plastic than the container is. like milk jugs and pop bottles are a much thinner plastic than detergent bottles are and can be recycled.

   it takes much more energy to recycle them. all plastic is not made of the same components. it depends what they are made of.

   if you look on the bottom of the container and there is a number there, that tells you , and the recycler, if the item can be recycled. no number, no recycle.