Official word on recyclable baggies?

davee123

So, the plastic baggies.  The ones that are marked with numbers are also marked as recyclable, no problem.  But the smaller baggies are unmarked.  The question is:  are they recyclable?

I used to just assume they were recyclable, and put them all together, but recently I've been separating them out, just in case.  But what's the deal?

I've asked this of LEGO in the past, and the response I've always gotten has always been sneakily worded so as to avoid answering the question.  They'll say something like "we mark our recyclable bags to let people know that they're recyclable".  Which, when taken literally, says to me: "NO, the unmarked bags are NOT recyclable, or else they would be marked."  But they didn't actually say that-- all they said was that the ones that are marked are recyclable... which we already knew.

Has anyone ever gotten official word from the company one way or another on this?  That is, a statement specifically referring to the unmarked bags?

DaveE

TigerMoth

davee123 said:

I've asked this of LEGO in the past, and the response I've always gotten has always been sneakily worded so as to avoid answering the question.  They'll say something like "we mark our recyclable bags to let people know that they're recyclable".

That's a fairly standard, almost automatic, response; it deliberately avoids the question for a different reason. What it usually means is that something is theoretically recyclable, but nobody does because there is one plant in the world that can do so - and it's in Outer Mongolia.

I know it's not the question you asked, but I suspect that's why you got the answer that you did.

However, it's particularly relevant for the polypropylene bags. Polypropylene is hard to recycle and most places don't bother. It's the least recycled plastic, and only about 1% actually is. Recyclable? Yes. Recycled? Probably not.

dougts

yeah, what people are allowed to recycle in their home recycling bin varies greatly by region and recycle service.  There are a lot of things that are recyclable that if I put in my bin I will get a hefty fine for it, including LEGO bags. instead I have to put these in my garbage that goes to the landfill.  There remains many things that are theoretically recyclable, but it is cost prohibitive to do so.

So, LEGO is being purposely vague most likely.

snowhitie

[I agree, so many different rules everywhere, they probably can't say it for everywhere.

Here in Belgium we just had a change. The Lego bags weren't allowed to go with other plastic (like detergent bottles) and had to go in with the leftover rubbish. But, now we can recycle them. We buy a big pink bag and all our Lego bags (big and small) + wrappings from magazines + those bags Lego puts in the boxes for packaging can go in there.

It's great and a little bit scary. I think from our street we have definitely have the most of this kind of plastic ;)

KingAlanI

Isn't that what the number for type of plastic is for? LEGO has that on the big bags but nothing on the little bags.
My county takes all plastic numbers, used to be just 1 and 2, I throw in the little ones.