There they were on the screen in 1967. A young Dustin Hoffman as “The Graduate” is beckoned aside at his homecoming party by a self-righteous businessman who says, “ I want to say one word to you. Just one word. Are you listening?”

“Yes, I am,” replies Dustin skeptically.

“Plastics,” the man whispers in a conspiratorial tone.

Plastics, as he meant it, was where the business future lay. The actual intent of the movie was to indicate everything that was superficial and pretentious. Yet here we are 42 years later still trying to contend with plastics’ advances and hazards in its manufacture, use, and recycling.

Check the next plastic container you hold. Turn it upside down, and you’ll see a recycling triangle with the number in the middle. In 1988 the plastics industry introduced its voluntary resin identification code, a number from one to seven that represents different resins, and they indicate the type of plastic so as to make sorting and recycling an easier process. These numbers are intended to help consumers know whether and how to recycle various plastic products and packages. It is, at least to me, as confusing as the Part D Medicare drug formulary or a five-star Suduko.

“Resin ID codes are not intended to provide guidance on the safe or appropriate use of any plastic item and should not be used for this purpose,” according to The Society of the Plastics Industry. Each recycling facility uses these numbers as a guide for what they will and won’t accept. It doesn’t mean that higher numbers are not recyclable.

There was a rumor a while back that alleged “bottles with plastic recycling numbers lower than five release cancer-causing chemicals.” It was just another Internet hoax like the one that told you Bill Gates would send you $1,200 for forwarding an e-mail.

National Geographic has a Web site named Green Guide (www.greenguide.com), which recommends buying items coded with a two, four or five: “These three types of plastic are your best choices. They transmit no known chemicals into your food and they’re generally recyclable.”

They go on stating that items with the one code (which are mostly disposable soft drink and water bottles) are “fine for single use but avoid reusing water and soda bottles, as they’re hard to clean, and because plastic is porous, these bottles absorb flavors and bacteria that you can’t get rid of.”

Plastics marked PLA are environmentally friendly, the Green Guide states as they “are made from renewable resources such as corn, potatoes and sugar cane and anything else with a high starch content,” however they can’t recycle these plant-based plastics. Nevertheless, they say those items can be used in a municipal composter or in your backyard compost heap.

They also caution against the use of :

1. No. 3 PVC used in cling wraps for meat because PVC has softeners that change hormonal development, and its manufacture and incineration release dioxin, a potent carcinogen and hormone disruptor.

2. No. 6 PS: Polystyrene-foam cups and clear plastic take-out containers, which they say “can leach styrene, a possible human carcinogen, into food.”

Additional alerts they list have to do with cling-wrapped food and food storage:

They suggest slicing off a thin layer of the food where it contacted the plastic and store the rest in a glass or ceramic container or wrap it in non-PVC cling wrap.

Avoid storing fatty foods, such as meat and cheese, in plastic containers or plastic wrap.

Hand-wash reusable containers gently with a nonabrasive soap; dishwashers and harsh detergents can scratch plastic, making hospitable homes for bacteria.

A “microwave-safe” or “microwavable” label on a plastic container only means that it shouldn’t melt, crack or fall apart when used in the microwave. The label is no guarantee that containers don’t leach chemicals into foods when heated. Use glass or ceramic containers instead.

So just when you thought it was safe going into the kitchen but Noooooooo, they drag you back again.

Herb Kandel is an entrepreneur and a former human resources executive who lives in Fairhope. He can be reached at hekan@mail.com.