Plastic Recycler Associations call for promotion of 'Caps on Bottles' recycling

TORONTO (Scrap Monster): The Association of Postconsumer Plastic Recyclers (APR) encourages municipal recycling programmes to encourage the ‘Caps on Bottles’ recycling. The Canadian Plastics Industry Association (CPIA) too has joined hands with APR in promoting recycling of plastic bottle caps and closures.

Until recently, plastic recyclers had urged customers to remove the cap from bottles before dropping them in recycling streams. However, the recycling collection and processing technology has undergone massive up gradations in recent times to effectively recycle plastic bottles with caps on.

According to APR, the cap material; is highly recyclable. The caps are made out of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and polypropylene (PP), which are in high demand in domestic and export markets. The recyclers make use of a water bath float/sink process to separate the bottle and caps.

The CPIA has launched a message “Empty bottle, crush, replace cap and recycle” to promote successful and increased recycling of caps. It believes that the promotion could result in less number of caps ending up as residuals in recycling sorting facilities and also reduce the volume of litter. The Association has also urged all municipalities and recyclers to boost the recycling of caps on plastic bottles.