COLUMBUS, Ohio — If you think plastic and environmental responsibility can’t go together, think again.

There is a secondary purpose for the tubs and containers (specifically plastics labeled 1, 2 and 5) you put into the recycling bin, according to Nicole Voss, Advanced Drainage Systems (ADS) director of sustainability.

The Hilliard, Ohio, company is one of the country’s largest plastic recyclers, keeping half a billion pounds of plastics out of the landfill each year. They turn everyday objects into pellets that are used to make drainage pipes that serve communities nation wide.

In Spectrum News 1 Ohio's latest Business and Innovation segment, anchor Chuck Ringwalt sat down with Brian King, executive vice president of management, marketing and sustainability, to learn how the company is putting sustainability at the forefront of their business.

For more than 50 years, ADS has been in the storm water and sewage drainage business. Their pipes keep roads from being flooded and places like parks from being underwater after a big rainstorm.

As part of their process, according to King, the company is also helping to eliminate microplastics and what are commonly known as “PFAFS”or per-and polyfluorinated substances from the environment, which have been linked to cancer.

King said that through how they treat, and then process, the plastics in ADS’s facility, they monitor any chemicals being released back into the environment.

“We think we are actually part of the solution because if the package is used and it gets recycled, it will come into one of our products and we get it out of the environment, we get it out of the situation where it potentially does becomes harmful,” King said, pointing out that burying drainage pipes underground keeps the material from sunlight which can break down plastic.

“The actual products that we make, we’ve tested and with the new lab continue to test, to make sure they are inert, to make sure that the water that goes through them is as high quality as possible,” King said.