Plastic not so fantastic: Do you know which numbers can't be recycled?

abc.net.au/news/plastic-pet-numbers-recycling-is-minefield/102506914Why is it that after nearly 40 years of kerbside recycling in this country, figuring out which plastics can and can't go in your recycling is still so difficult?PET is different to HDPE, which is different to PVC, PP and PS, and then soft plastics are something else altogether.

So we've enlisted polymer chemist Bronwyn Laycock to help us understand what plastics we're dealing with, and whether they're broadly recyclable or not.First up, there's a reason PET or polyethylene terephthalate tops this list. Because it's literally number "1". So if we back up for a bit of chemistry here — all plastics are made up molecules called monomers, bonded together to form chains called polymers.

"You can break it down to monomers, which are the starting materials [of plastic], or oligomers, which are sort of half way down to starting materials." Mechanical recycling is much less expensive than chemical recycling, but the downside is it can only be done a limited number of times due to declining plastic quality with each cycle.Products branded with a number 2 are made from high density polyethylenes or HDPEs, and include your cloudy milk bottles.OK, so it's challenge time again: You're standing at your bins. Which one does the milk bottle go into?But will it be recycled? Not necessarily.

You'll recognise them from such adventures as the pipes beneath your kitchen sink, the pipes beneath your toilet, or the pipes strutting Parisian catwalks or Hollywood Boulevard in the form of tight fitting vinyl pants.PVCs degrade to form hydrochloric acid and can contaminate recycling streams.You've been working hard. Go grab a drink of cordial. Make sure it's the brand that starts with a "C".

It's not that the technology to chemically recycle or down-cycle soft plastics doesn't exist, but Australia "isn't well set up for it yet", Professor Laycock says — certainlyThe reason soft plastics are hard and expensive to recycle is partly because they're often a mix of several plastic types."Because it's lightweight and thin, it entangles the machinery and it's challenging to work with," says Professor Laycock.

Right now there's a push to establish a national polypropylene plant pot recycling scheme, and some garden centres and hardwares will take back used pots.Poly Styrene was the stage name of '70s punk frontwoman Marianne Joan Elliot-Said of X-Ray Spex. She chose the name because it encapsulated what she thought of pop stars — "lightweight and disposable".

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