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Finally, a way to dispose of yogurt containers

BY LISA SORG



The bane of local recycling: There's no place to take your leaning tower of yogurt containers or sacks of plastic drink pouches.

But a new statewide reuse program is encouraging schools and community groups to collect those items for fundraising. After signing up at www.terracycle.net/brigades, organizations can earn 1 cent for every drink pouch or 2 cents for Honest Kids drink pouches. Yogurt containers fetch 2 cents for six-ounce cups, and 5 cents for 32-ounce versions. All yogurt containers must be cleaned.

According to the Container Recycling Institute, 3.6 billion drink pouches are produced each year—and are non-recyclable. More then 10 billion yogurt containers are consumed a year in America. While the No. 5 containers have the least amount of plastic (Stonyfield Farm uses No. 5), recycling centers don't have the equipment to recycle them.

The drink pouches will be made into handbags, tentatively scheduled to be sold at major retailers in 2008. Stonyfield Farm will reuse the yogurt containers.

COMMENTS
5 comments posted for this article
papamatt, NC, Apex  12/26/2007 - 11:16pm
   "All yogurt containers must be cleaned."
   And I suppose we wash them out using water that we don't have?
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papamatt, NC, Apex  12/26/2007 - 11:30pm
   All yogurt containers must be cleaned.
   But we're in a serious drought. Do we really want to be washing out yogurt containers?
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Lavon J, NC  12/27/2007 - 10:53am
   No need to wash out with clean water. Wait til you've filled a basin or sink for washing dishes and just throw them in at the end. They can soak and they'll be plenty clean. Alternatively, you could put it on the bottom of your shower and it will be spotless when you're done. Or if you take a bath, throw them in at the end before you drain the tub.
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holleahock  12/27/2007 - 3:37pm
   Where are the Triangle locations that are collecting the yogurt containers?
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Lisa Sorg (lsorg@indyweek.com), Durham  12/27/2007 - 7:22pm
   There aren't drop off centers for the containers. Non-profit groups, church and community organizations, etc. can sign up to collect them (see the website listed in Living Green). Then those organizations can solicit people to give them the containers.
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