Jackie Thompson
Recycling has steadily been on the rise in North Carolina but it is also gaining importance in South Carolina. In fact, recycling, processing and manufacturing plastic bottles has recently created jobs for 3,500 people, generating and incredible $228 million in capital investments, as confirmed by the South Carolina Department of Commerce.
Your Bottle Means Jobs
Recycling two more bottles weekly for each North or South Carolina household would mean the additional creation of 300 jobs. In order to fully emphasize and promote this point, the Carolinas Plastics Recycling Council created a campaign aptly called “Your Bottle Means Jobs“. The Council consists in recycling industry folks, feedstock users and government agencies who believe that the focus is not only on saving land-mill, energy and other resources but also in creating strategies for economic development.
The campaign was launched in March 2016, but it has grown significantly over the past couple of years. The aim is to get more and more of the 3 billion plastic bottles discarded each year in the Carolinas – corresponding to 150,000 tons of plastic – back into the production cycle. By recycling bottles, the public is helping in creating jobs, saving energy and natural resources, and also reducing the tax and cost burden resulting from the disposal of plastic bottles as waste.
Today, more than 3,500 people have benefited from the jobs created thanks to recycling plastic bottles and are employed in converting them into different products such as clothes and textiles, carpeting, plastic pipe or lumber, and more bottles.
How Are the Recycled Bottles Used?
Different types of plastic are used in different ways for effective recycling. Polyethylene terephthalate plastic, commonly abbreviated as PETE, is the plastic commonly used for water bottles and soft drinks. This plastic is recycled to make fabrics, then used to make clothing such as t-shirts, or carpeting.
High-density polyethylene, known as HDPE, is used to make bottles for shampoo, cosmetics or laundry detergent, as well as containers for milk and fruit juice. HDPE is recycled to make toys, outdoor furniture, plastic lumber and many other consumer items.
Every Individual Makes a Difference
Recycling and paying more attention to the environment and our resources have come a long way in the last few years; there are even apps which allow consumers to make extra money by using less electricity. However, in North and South Carolina, 3 billion bottles every year are thrown away as waste; this represents a lot of missed potential jobs and resources.
The “Your Bottle Means Jobs” campaign is stressing the importance of individual participation, emphasizing how recycling simple plastic bottles can create a positive economic impact on local communities, creating new jobs, reducing landfill costs and increasing energy savings.
Companies are also involved in this positive, community-changing campaign. In fact, Carolina’s plastic recycling change can count on over 200 companies which are involved in recycling plastic bottles and creating new jobs for local communities, while also saving valuable resource