Full
Name

Typical
Products

SPI
Code

PET
Polyethylene terephthalate

PET is the plastic used in soft drink and water bottles, as well as packaging for other food products.

You can earn up to R2,20 per kg of PET you recycle, depending on the colour.

PET can be recycled into fleece and hollow fibre filling for jackets, sleeping bags and duvets, as well as building insulation and geotextiles.

HDPE
High density polyethylene

HDPE is the plastic commonly used for milk, motor oil and cleaning product bottles.

HDPE is recycled into other plastic goods, buckets, containers, piping and plastic chairs, and wheelie bins, among others.

PVC
Polyvinyl chloride

PVC is incredibly hard to recycle, in fact, even the Plastics Federation of SA advises you to simply throw it away, which will leach toxic substances into the earth.

PVC often has a smell (the “new car smell”) that can linger for over a month.  This odour really is just toxins evaporating, or leaching out of the PVC into the air, posing possible health risks.

Unfortunately, credit cards, gutters, plumbing pipes, insulation tape, imitation leather, pool toys (and other inflatable toys) and waterproof clothing are all made from PVC, making it hard to completely avoid.  Blood bags and IV drips are also made from PVC.

LDPE
Low density polyethylene

LDPE is usually used for bin liners, freezer bags, squeeze bottles and building film, as well as computer parts and plastic bags.

It can be recycled into more bin liners, freezer bags, compost bins and building film.

PP
Polypropylene

PP is used to make plastic containers that are freezer, dishwasher and microwave safe.  It is also used in ice-cream containers, margarine tubs, lunch boxes, bottle tops and kettles, as it only degrades at around 160 °C.  They are also used to make rope, as it is strong and floats on water.

PP is a high-grade plastic and can be recycled into many items.

PS
Polystyrene

There are two main types of PS.

The most common is expanded PS, from which food trays are made from (the trays your veg. or meat is packed on at the supermarket).

High impact PS is used to make coathangers and yogurt cups, as well as plastic utensils and cafeteria trays.  It can be recycled into coathangers, seedling trays, rulers, picture frames, curtain rails and plastic trays.

Other
Varies

This denotes plastic made from a variety of other forms of plastic.  This is not recyclable in South Africa.  The only way to prevent it becoming trash is too simply not buy items with this stamp on it.

Unmarked plastics

If you have any plastic that is not marked, pop it into a separate bag and give it to the recyclers.  They may be able to work out what it is, and if they can, this helps reduce some of the load on our landfills.