Currently, Iowa City recycles SRI Type 1, 2, and 5 plastics municipally. However, the University of Iowa does not collect or process Type 5 plastics, which forces pounds of clean, recyclable Type 5 plastics into the trash instead each day across campus. 

We are a small group of students and researchers working to make biomedical study at the university more sustainable. Type 5 plastics make up a significant portion of single-use laboratory plastics (for instance: conical tubes, pipette tip boxes, and media bottle caps) but because university recycling does not accept Type 5 plastics, we are forced to send these clean, recyclable plastics to the landfill instead.

Even with limited signatures, this petition has already caught attention in the Iowa's Office of Sustainability. Please help us continue this momentum by signing to show your support for expanding the University of Iowa's recycling capabilities and sharing it with anyone who would support this effort. Together we could really make a difference!

For more information about the Type 5 (polypropylene) recycling techniques, check out these articles:

Recycling of Polypropylene (PP) (azocleantech.com)

An Introduction to Polypropylene Recycling (liveabout.com)