i am doing a science project and wanted to know if you can recycle a ziploc plastic baggie.
This Site Might Help You. RE: Can you recycle a ziploc plastic bag? i am doing a science project and wanted to know if you can recycle a ziploc plastic baggie.
Are Ziploc Bags Recyclable
Yes you can. Drop it off with your grocery bags at your local grocery store that recycles bags. They are both made out of Polyethelene. The ziploc bag can be recycled back into plastic trash bags or plastic lumber to name a couple.
I agree with most of the others who have responded - reuse. I do not know of any way to truely recycle these bags. If they were made of the same material as the grocery bags, you could recycle at the grocery store along with these as long as your bags were clean (left over food attracts bugs and rodents)...but I would recommend that you do some research on this before trying. Perhaps someone else out there knows the answer to this question? There are MANY different kinds of plastic, and it is important that all the different kinds be kept separate. Because the ziplock bags and the grocery bags don't feel the same, I doubt that they are made of the same material. Please do not sink used bags in lakes or ponds as suggested by someone below. The bags will evenually leak and become just another piece of trash that washes up on shore. It is also unlikely that fish will use this type of substrate to lay eggs on. Because it is nearly the same density as the water (just has a thin plastic coating), it will move with currents like waves in the lake. Unlike aquatic plants that make good habitat for fish and their eggs, the bags are not rooted to the bottom, so they will roll.
I work for a plastic bag manufacturer and we make zipper type bags like the ziploc you're talking about. They are generally made out of LDPE - that's low density polyethylene. LDPE is completely recyclable - it's collected, sorted, cleaned, stripped of dies and other impurities and re-pelletized (melted and reformed into small pellets) that can then be used in the making of other plastic products that call for LDPE, such as trash bags. This happens all the time in the industry, especially with LDPE plastic packaging (that is surplus for some reason or mis-printed), like bread bags which are also LDPE. Zipper-type food bags cannot be recycled in this fashion back into food bags or food packaging, however, because the FDA doesn't allow it. Only virgin, i.e. new, resins can be used in food contact applications. The key to recycling a ziploc plastic bag is whether the local recycling collection service collects that type of plastic and can process it. You may be able to get more information from the national association of recyclers (search on Google for the exact name). But the bag itself, and the material it's made out of, is perfectly recycle-able in industry.
