Unlike our friends in Washington, landfills in North Carolina seem a little less dense these days.

The mid-Atlantic state recently banned disposing plastic bottles in landfills to help reduce trash and encourage recycling. This has become a practical issue in rural towns where curbside recycling is not offered. Winston-Salem Journal reports on how the problem was solved in one county. The president of Rural Garbage Services Inc. offered to pick them up for free: “In order to recycle their plastics, people in those areas would have to take them to one of the county’s three recycling centers…Parrish came up with a solution for his customers: His company would pick up the bottles from its customers for free.” Nice guy.

Although people could just hide the bottles in their trash, the law does seem to be having a positive effect.

More plastic bottles have been dropped off at the county’s three centers since the landfill bottle ban was imposed, according to the City-County Utilities Division. From a monthly average of around 14,000 pounds of plastic for the period from September 2008 to September 2009, collections have risen to an average of about 19,000 a month for the first three months since the ban went into effect.

[via TreeHugger]

In an unprecidented move, the North Carolina Legislature has enacted a new law that bans throwing away one-time-use plastic bottles.  This law, taking affect in fall 2009, is aimed at curbing increasing waste from plastic product such as water bottles, sode bottles, milk jugs and shampoo bottles.

The ban includes type 1 polyethylene terephthalate plastic, or PET, and type 2 high-density polyethylene plastic, or HDPE. PET materials include water and soda bottles, and HDPE materials include shampoo bottles and milk jugs. Bottles sold in the state contain a code on the bottom identifying its classification.

The law also bans oil filters and wooden pallets from being thrown away.Scott Mouw, state recycling director, said the law is designed to lessen the burden on landfills and boost the economy.”I think it’s really necessary. It’s a great way to create jobs, and it’s a great way to reduce our long-term dependency on landfills,” he said.Melanie Bruton, environmental programs coordinator for High Point, said the law won’t be aggressively enforced at a residential level.”In the city of High Point, we do not have a litter police. We’re not going to have someone to pick up those people, but these items have been banned from the landfill,” Bruton said. (more…)