The New York Times has an interesting article up about recycled plastic products. They’re profiling a company called Recycline, which makes those bright green recycled plastic cutting boards, strawberry red colanders, and even toothbrushes.
According to the article:
Recycline’s products, sold under the Preserve brand, make new products out of things that would otherwise be likely to end up in landfills. The company uses mostly recycled polypropylene, much of it from yogurt and cottage-cheese containers, along with some sustainably forested wood and recycled paper.
On one hand, the idea of recycling plastic, rather than tossing it into a landfill, is über cool. And polypropylene isn’t (as far as we know) a carcinogen or an endocrine disruptor like BPA and PVC.
I’d like to see the idea taken one step further. This company is minimizing the waste in a system already in place. All those yogurt containers were designed without anyone seriously considering what happens after we polish off our yogurt. It would be great if people factored that in at the design stage.
