FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT:

Tuesday July 11, 2000 Margie Byers

(941) 479-8181

Mission Successful Again

Fort Myers, FL. – The Mission has been successful once again! Two more winners are now five hundred dollars richer! Lee County continues to pay out award money in an effort to increase the recycling participation rate and recyclables capture rate, or volume of recyclables being recycled. The winners now total over 20 residences from all over Lee County. This time the winners: Eleanor Chelston and David Frink live in south Lee County.

The Mission Recycle Challenge has helped to improve the recycling habits of many Lee County residents. It is interesting to note that a study from the City of Napa, California highlights missed recycling opportunities. The City of Napa, California, estimates that 92 percent of its households participate in the city's voluntary curbside recycling program. A study sponsored by the American Plastics Council set out to determine if this high participation rate translated into a high capture rate. Were all of the containers that could be recovered making it into the recycling bin?

By studying the contents of residents' garbage cans and recycling bins, the researchers determined that 35 percent of the plastic containers targeted by Napa's collection program were ending up in the waste stream. For pigmented HDPE also known as the number 2 plastic (e.g., laundry detergent, shampoo and cleaning products), more than half of the targeted containers wound up in the garbage can.

Clearly, even though the vast majority of Americans today have access to plastics collection programs, they aren't participating to the fullest extent possible and recyclable plastics aren't making it into the bin. Napa's experience underscores the importance of educating consumers to look beyond the kitchen for recyclables particularly plastics.

In Lee County, all plastics with the numbers 1 through 7 are recyclable. To qualify to win in the Mission Recycle Challenge, residents in unincorporated Lee County and Cape Coral should place only proper items into their recycling bins, no trash. The items should be rinsed, lids removed and the paper items, including magazines, should be placed in a brown paper bag next to the bin. Corrugated cardboard should be flattened and placed under the recycling bin. For more information on the Mission Recycle Challenge call 479-8181.