So great it deserves a separate post

Yogurt containers, cottage cheese containers, take-out containers, margarine tubs. They're all #5s, or polypropylene plastic. And not only can you drop them off for recycling at Eastside Food Co-op and the Coon Rapids Recycling Center, but Whole Foods in St. Paul and Minneapolis has a bin for #5s near the front entrance.




Besides the convenience of Whole Foods being open more hours, you know where your #5s are going: To Recycline to be made into new Preserve products through their Preserve Gimme 5 program! This company out of Waltham, Mass., gets big kudos from me. Not only do they take #5s and make them into toothbrush handles, plates, cups, chopping boards, food-storage containers, colanders, measuring cups and a whole bunch of other products, if for some reason the product's not working for you (or you need to change your toothbrush), you send it to them and they recycle it AGAIN into plastic lumber. Talk about working to end the cycle of waste!

So check them out. http://www.preserveproducts.com/
Some of their products are sold at Target, Valley Natural Foods in Burnsville and Whole Foods.