Since October 1, all rigid plastic containers, including plastic water bottles, are banned from North Carolina landfills. Officials hope the law will encourage more citizens to recycle their plastic bottles -- currently only one in five are recycled. And in 2007 nearly 7 billion pounds of plastic bottles were dumped in landfills nationwide.
Along with the new law, North Carolina will soon be home to the country's largest PET bottle recycling facility. The new plant will be able to process 280 million pounds of plastic each year, or about 5 billion bottles. The joint venture, Clear Path Recycling, was created by two companies that make polyester based products. Most of the recycled material will go to the two partners: Shaw Industries Group, the world's largest carpet manufacturer, which can use recycled PET to make polyester for carpeting and DAK, a PET Resin and Polyester Staple Fiber producer.
Clear Path Recycling will help North Carolina meet their solid waste reduction goals (which they have failed to meet so far) by conserving one million cubic yards per year of landfill space. The facility also boasts an energy savings of 2.5 trillion BTU's of energy each year, which is the same amount needed to power 18,000 homes in the U.S according to Energy Information Administration data. And roughly 100 new jobs will be created to operate the plant.
Image by Vaguely Artistic on Flickr under a Creative Commons License.
Along with the new law, North Carolina will soon be home to the country's largest PET bottle recycling facility. The new plant will be able to process 280 million pounds of plastic each year, or about 5 billion bottles. The joint venture, Clear Path Recycling, was created by two companies that make polyester based products. Most of the recycled material will go to the two partners: Shaw Industries Group, the world's largest carpet manufacturer, which can use recycled PET to make polyester for carpeting and DAK, a PET Resin and Polyester Staple Fiber producer.
Clear Path Recycling will help North Carolina meet their solid waste reduction goals (which they have failed to meet so far) by conserving one million cubic yards per year of landfill space. The facility also boasts an energy savings of 2.5 trillion BTU's of energy each year, which is the same amount needed to power 18,000 homes in the U.S according to Energy Information Administration data. And roughly 100 new jobs will be created to operate the plant.
Image by Vaguely Artistic on Flickr under a Creative Commons License.
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