Photo: WBZ NewsRadio/Chaiel Schaffel
LITTLETON, Mass. (WBZ NewsRadio) — Not all plastic is created equal when it comes to recycling.
In fact, there are tons of plastic that most Massachusetts recycling companies will not accept.
Up until just a few years ago, this type of unwanted plastic was sent to China before that country banned recycling imports.
That ban created an opportunity for GreenLabs Recycling of Littleton, Mass.
GreenLabs is a start-up recycling company that collects and recycles plastic material such as empty pipette tip boxes, refillable wafers, and other plastic items from research facilities and laboratories in Greater Boston.
GreenLab CEO Sam White said his company collects these unwanted plastics preventing them from getting discarded. "That packaging has just been thrown away into the landfill unnecessarily," he said.
Offering companies this recycling solution, he said, provides local, cost-effective plastic recycling solutions helping make science sustainable. "We're getting calls every other day from not lab managers, but actual scientists," White added.
After receiving the plastic at GreenLabs, it gets sorted, and then shredded.
Ultimately, the material is turned back into more plastics that get sold back to the facilities it came from.
GreenLabs said this process kept out an estimated 200,000 pounds of plastic from landfill last year alone.
WBZ NewsRadio's Chaiel Schaffel (@CSchaffelWBZ) reports.