Save Marine Life by Recycling Bottle Caps

Posted on February 9, 2009 by Joyce Benson   5 Comments |
Tag(s): For Kids, Hazardous Products / Health Issues, Recycling, The Great Green Outdoors

Aveda, a natural beauty products company committed to helping the environment and people worldwide since 1978, recently launched its Recycle Caps with Aveda campaign.  Plastic bottle caps are not typically recycled and end up as litter where many find their way into our rivers and oceans.  There, they do not biodegrade, but float on the surface of the water where birds and other marine creatures mistake them for food with tragic results.

Anyone can collect caps and drop them off at Aveda stores and salons around the country.  Your child may even be collecting caps through a partnership Aveda created with community schools.  The caps will be sent to Aveda’s recycler where the old caps will be made into new caps and containers for Aveda products.

The program accepts caps that are rigid polypropylene plastic, sometimes noted with a 5 in the chasing arrows recycling symbol. This includes caps that twist on with a threaded neck such as caps on shampoo, water, soda, milk and other beverage bottles, flip top caps on tubes and food product bottles (such as ketchup and mayonnaise), laundry detergents and some jar lids such as peanut butter.

Excluded from collection are pharmaceutical lids and non rigid lids such as yogurt lids, tub lids (margarine, cottage cheese), and screw on lids that are not rigid. If you can bend or break the lid with your bare hands, then it does not meet the rigid plastic definition. Please do not include any metal lids or plastic pumps or sprayers.

Learn more about Aveda’s cap campaign here.

Photos below courtesy of mindfully.org.  Learn more about plastic ocean debris at PBS, National Geographic, PlasticDebris.org, and GreenPeace

Comments

5 Responses to “Save Marine Life by Recycling Bottle Caps”

  1. Vangie on May 8th, 2009 10:53 pm

    Hi,
    I’ve been collecting bottle caps for the past few months now. After amassing a sufficient amount of 200 to drop off at a local Aveda store at Carrefour Laval, I’ve been told that they don’t recycle because they are not allowed. Not only do they not participate in this program you are promoting, they simply don’t recycle. If my opinion matters I believe this is wrong.

  2. Joyce Benson on May 9th, 2009 9:32 am

    I too have collected many caps and brought them to my local Aveda hair salon where they did collect them for recycling. I had to ask where their collection box was located in the shop since it wasn’t on display like I thought it should be. Perhaps you should try another Aveda store or salon who is participating in this campaign. Also, perhaps contact Aveda and let them know of the problem.

  3. Emily Peacock on July 3rd, 2009 1:00 pm

    The drop-off program at the Aveda salons is over. You should call the corporate office (800-284-8616) for the address of their local recycler.

    While you have to pay for the postage to mail them, I consider the cost much less than the cost of for polluted oceans and harmed and dead birds and animals in the long run. It’s a small price to pay.

  4. Emily Peacock on July 3rd, 2009 1:03 pm

    http://www.preserveproducts.com/gimme5/

    This website gives locations which will collect #5 plastic such as yogurt containers and others. This is really good, because some localities will not collect them.

  5. shannon clark on March 18th, 2010 6:28 pm

    We will take your plastic bottle caps!!! We re-purpose plastic bottle caps into doormats! We use 100% post consumer materials. We encourage any one to help us in our quest for caps. Please check out our website! Contact sl.clark@yahoo.com for further information about participation, collection, and donations.

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