The Ecoist – Recyclable? I think not.
Posted by Eco-Products on Mar 6th 2013
Are your products recyclable?
In short, probably not. Here’s why: We have 2 lines of products; our GreenStripe® items that are made with renewable resources and our BlueStripe™ items that are made with recycled content materials. Not all of these materials can be recycled most places in the US.
Most of our GreenStripe® items are compostable. So when you are done with these renewable GreenStripe® items, like Ingeo products, they can be disposed of in a commercial compost facility instead of the landfill. As compost they are returned to the soil, which is great. 
Our BlueStripe™ items are made from post-consumer recycled PET plastic, polystyrene or fiber, so we are excited to give a second (or third) life to these materials. Unfortunately, it can be hard for some recycling facilities to capture these items – instead, their environmental benefit lies in their front end materials. For these items, please dispose of them responsibly and only recycle them if they are accepted.
Coming soon! There are some regions where #1 PET recycling has expanded and you can put our BlueStripe™ PET items in the recycling bin. It’s not everywhere yet, but hopefully one day soon. We encourage you to check with your local municipality or materials recovered facility (MRF for short) to see if they are accepted and if not, to learn when they will be.
Note: It can be tricky to tell the difference between a clear Ingeo cup and a nearly identical cup made from petroleum-derived plastic like PET or even recycled PET. Check out the resin identification number on the bottom of the cup – Ingeo cups are labeled with #7 and PET cups are #1.
Recycling facilities can have problems with PLA items, so it is important to separate compostables from recyclables into “clean” waste streams. Because PLA and PET mix about as well as oil and water, recyclers consider PLA a contaminant and compost facilities have a hard time cleaning PET out of the compost.
Our very own Sustainability Maven serves up a delicious nugget of green geekery every other week. If this little taste leaves you hungry for more, you can always cruise over to the Greenology and/or Training sections at EcoProducts.com for a full helping. If you have a question you can’t find the answer to you can email her at sustainabilitymaven@ecoproducts.com