BOISE, Idaho — Editor's Note: The video above details how plastics in the Hefty EnergyBags are recycled in Boise.
The City of Boise's public works department announced on Thursday that Renewology, the Salt Lake City company that has been processing Boise's EnergyBags, is still unable to process the city's plastics due to delays in equipment upgrades.
Officials said until Renewology's processing equipment is upgraded to better maintain the plastics they receive, Boise's EnergyBags won't be processed until late summer or early fall.
Even though Boise is still figuring out what to do with the Hefty EnergyBags, residents that use them won't see any disruptions to the program.
To double check what can be thrown in the EnergyBags, you can the city's list of approved plastics here.
Dow Chemical Company, the administrators of Boise's recycling program, teamed up with Reynolds Consumer Products to find a place for the plastics, according to the City of Boise. Officials weighed several options, but determined that the most effective option is to send the EnergyBags to cement manufacturing facilities that would use the plastics for fuel.
Boise is currently storing used EnergyBags with Reynolds until an analysis of the environmental impacts of sending them to cement facilities is completed, according to the city.
The Environmental Protection Agency said using plastics in cement facilities are in the same category as energy recovery, but city officials want to study this more before making a final decision on what to do with the EnergyBags.