Check out this List of what Not to Recycle
As important as recycling is to reducing landfill waste and improving the quality of our environment, there are some things that we do not know how to recycle. Municipal recycling programs bank on limiting contamination, ensuring the wrong products are not being mixed in with recyclables. When the wrong products are sent to recycling facilities, it only serves to increase costs while limiting what can be recycled.
Aluminum cans, aluminum foil, steel cans, and tin cans are all recyclable. As more municipalities sharpen up their recycling programs, there are key items that, when recycled, save significant energy and waste. These items are among them. That said, there are certain ways to proceed when recycling these to limit contamination. Aluminum cans, for example, are required to be fully emptied and rinsed prior to being put in the recycling bin. Aluminum foil that is entered into recycling needs to be cleaned off from any food particles. When the proper procedures are not followed, it serves to disqualify some items from being recycled.
Though we think of plastic, paper, and metal as recyclable, there are some products that we do not have the means to recycle. Take-out food containers are contaminated with food particles, excluding them from possibilities of recycling. Plastic bags cannot oftentimes be processed in a recycling center as they are known to get tied up in machinery. Also, even though we can recycle a plastic bottle, the bottle cap is non-recyclable and usually made from polypropylene. Due to the higher concentration of plastic used in the bottle cap, one is required to get rid of the cap prior to throwing the bottle into recycling. Styrofoam is another material that cannot be broken down to recycle. Despite being technically made of plastic, it cannot be broken down.
Part of the discussions regarding what to recycle and what not to recycle is somewhat different depending on the city. There are some items that certain municipalities may not be willing to accept. Because of this, it is always recommended to consult with your own municipality’s directives on their recycling program to ensure that contamination is kept to a minimum.
No matter if it is for a single-unit residential home, an apartment or condo building, a commercial business, or an industrial site, recycling plays a key role in reducing waste and lowering the environmental costs of material manufacturing. As recycling rules continue to change and as new processes are invented, it may be one day possible to recycle the items we mentioned as unrecyclable. For the time being however, keeping contamination low and being aware of what not to enter into the recycling bin is key.
Some of the other items that cannot be recycled include drinking straws, pizza boxes which despite being cardboard are in fact contaminated with food product, coffee cups, and soft plastic wrappers.
According to some estimates, it can take up to 500 years for plastic to fully decompose. So much of the world’s plastic problem has, in the past, been diverted to other countries. For example, China has been accepting foreign waste and foreign plastic for decades. Recently however, China announced that they would no longer be accepting other countries’ waste products. Since 2004, plastic production and consumption has grown from 225 million tonnes to over 311 million tonnes annually. There are major aspects of recycling programs that need to change and, needless to say, a large part of that is in identifying what not to recycle.
