Why you must BYOB (bring your own bag)

Plastic Bag Recycling Faces Poor Economics at least for now

By Mary Fisher, Executive Director of ALPAR

There¹s no good face to put on it.  Markets for recyclable materials like
many commodity markets have suffered a steep downturn both in the US and
internationally.  When manufacturing slows the need for raw material slows
as well.   And for one material, plastic bags, the market has all but
disappeared which has caused the Anchorage Recycling Center to stop
accepting the bags for the time being.  The plastic lumber manufacturers,
who are the primary buyers of this material, have stopped buying until they
use up inventories and the construction market recovers.  We have every
reason to think that this situation is temporary and we can resume plastic
bag recycling in the near future. Stay tuned - we are watching the markets
daily.  Until then, the best advice is to reuse disposable bags as much as
possible or switch to reusable bags.

Mary FIsher and ALPAR can be reached at 644-7968.