Pre-washed Salad Bags

Example of a pre-washed salad bag
Example of 5 PP symbol found on back of pre-washed salad bag
  • DON’T put put into recycling
  • DO discard

About These Items

Pre-washed salads come in plastic bags that look similar to recyclable polyethylene bags. They are typically labeled with a #5 PP symbol. These bags are not recyclable through any known channel in Pittsburgh. Discard these bags in the trash, unless the packaging has different recycling instructions on it.

A difficult consumer challenge

Since they can not be recycled by the city, the best thing you can do is to try to avoid these bags. Unfortunately this can be pretty hard to do when buying salad greens. And the plastic clam shell containers that unwashed pre-mixed salads often come in are also not recyclable.

Why can’t these go to recycling drop-offs?

There are some local locations where you can drop off plastic bags and other flexible film plastics. However, the Plastic Film Recycling group lists pre-washed salad bags as one of the items they do not accept. When asked specifically about #5 PP bags, they provided this answer: #5 bags are not accepted in our program because they are not the correct type of plastic to be recycled. For the time being, only bags with a #2 or #4 are acceptable. If a bag or film doesn’t have a number, it needs to be stretchy and soft (not stiff, shiny or crinkly). It will stretch when you try to push your thumbs through it. 

Since these are #5 plastics, you might wonder if they could be dropped off at one of Preserve’s Gimme 5 locations that accepts #5 plastics. However, the Gimme 5 program accepts only rigid #5 plastics. It does not accept these bags.

🛇 Can we reduce unrecyclable plastic packaging in PA?

Pennsylvania lawmakers have introduced legislation package aimed at reducing the glut of single-use plastics distributed in our state. If you would like to know more about this initiative and see if your lawmaker supports it, check out pahouse.com/zerowaste.
If the overuse of single-use plastics and their impact on our state environment and resources concern you, considering asking your representative to support the advancement of this legislation.

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