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Film plastic collection now takes place at Ablitt’s. There are typically two collection events per week. Please sign up to receive info about film plastic collection events at Ablitt’s and for their email list at Film Plastic Recycling – Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners & Tailors (ablitts.com).
Each collection event takes place for one hour. After receiving the email announcing the events for the upcoming week, simply sign up to attend one event, and show up during that timeslot. If the event is full, you will not be able to sign up. Ablitt’s asks folks to please park in the public parking lot across the street from Ablitt’s. The parking in front of Ablitt’s is for Ablitt’s customers only. If you have more plastic than you can carry, you can respond to the email announcing the collection events and they will provide special instructions.
Channelkeeper is proud to support the Ablitt’s Fine Cleaner’s plastic film recycling initiative.
Film plastics are items like plastic shopping bags, bubble wrap, shipping “air pillows,” and the thin plastic bags used to contain bread, produce, and newspapers. Most recycling brokers no longer purchase film plastics, which means consumers typically don’t have any other choice but to throw them away.
As a dry cleaning business, Ablitt’s ends up using quite a number of single-use plastic clothing sleeves. Owner Sasha Ablitt was frustrated by the waste, and after doing some research, she found a company willing to take her bags and turn them into pellets that could be repurposed into products like outdoor decking and benches. She invested in a baling machine and has been collecting in-house film plastic at her store since 2015.
In 2018, Ablitt’s invited the public to bring their household film plastics to their store (14 W. Gutierrez St.), and Channelkeeper and CEC joined in to offer our offices as additional drop-off locations through the pandemic. As Ablitt’s worked to reopen the collection of film plastic following the pandemic closure, they restructured their collection system to the current one with community members sorting their own film plastic with dedicated volunteers. This has proven to be much more efficient, greatly reduces the amount of waste left at Ablitt’s, and very effective in educating the community about what types of film plastic are accepted.
Click here to download CEC’s printable PDF of which film plastics you can and can not recycle.
Film Plastic that is collected includes:
- Retail, carryout, newspaper, dry cleaning bags (clean, dry, and free of receipts and clothes hangers)
- Bread bags or tortilla bags turned INSIDE OUT and shaken free of crumbs
- Plastic shipping envelopes (remove labels/tape as best you can), bubble wrap, and air pillows (deflate)
- Product wrap on cases of water/soda bottles, paper towels, napkins, disposable cups, bathroom tissue, diapers, and female sanitary products
- Furniture and electronic wrap
- Film plastics with a recycle number 2 and 4
- White Amazon mailers
- Clean ziplock bags (remove zipper tabs)
PRO TIP: If the plastic stretches with your thumb and rips in a jagged edge, it is recyclable. If it crinkles and rips straight, it is not recyclable.
*Another tip that a community member shared with us that has helped with the sorting is to keep plastic that you weren’t sure if it is accepted in a separate bag from all the good clean and dry film plastic.
Thank you for your efforts to divert film plastic from the landfill!