6 Common Recycling and Composting No-No’s
Recycling and composting are the two best ways to reduce the EPA’s estimated 4.5 lbs. of garbage each American sends to the landfill each day. In fact, over half the stuff the average person throws in the trash can actually be recycled or composted.
Below are a few of the most common items people think are recyclable and/or compostable but actually belong at a landfill.
Recycling:
Plastic Bags
This is a tough one since current recycling technology offers the capability to recycle plastic grocery bags, but very few facilities utilize this technology at the moment.
A California-based company called MBA Polymers specializes in handling hard-to-recycle plastics like plastic bags. It uses a 30-step process to sort the various plastics and recycle it into small pellets. These small pellets are then used to make things like electronics and car parts.
Current recommendations for plastic bag recycling are contradicting. A 2010 article published at MNN.com specifically states to avoid composting or recycling plastic grocery bags and Earth911.com states that plastic grocery bags are ok to recycle.
So, the best approach is to contact your local recycle center or hauler and ask if they accept plastic bags for recycling. If not, toss them in the trash can. Plastic should never end up in your compost bin.
Pizza Boxes
Cardboard is great for recycling but not when it’s all greasy. Why? The paper and cardboard recycling process involves adding water to create a slurry mixture. Since grease and water don’t mix, the grease sits on top of the slurry and doesn’t allow the paper fibers to separate from the grease.
So, the best approach here is to avoid putting any type of greasy or oily paper/cardboard item into the recycle bin. Grease or oil on glass, metal or plastic is a different story. These items are melted during the recycling process, which rids the material of grease and oil.
Used Napkins/Paper Towels
Like pizza boxes, used napkins and paper towel should go in the trash, not the recycle bin. Paper products with grease, butter, oils or cleaning chemicals can disrupt the recycling process for reasons mentioned above.
Used napkins and paper towels may be good for composting, however. Just make sure the used paper towel or napkin wasn’t used for cleaning (unless you use homemade cleaning solution like vinegar) and isn’t saturated with grease, fat, butter or oil.
Composting:
Eggs
Keep eggs out of the compost pile to avoid attracting pests and to keep the compost from smelling bad. The same holds true for any type of animal product, such as meat, fish, bones, milk, cheese and fats.
However, egg shells themselves are great for compost. Egg shells contain a high level of calcium, which is an excellent nutrient for growing healthy plants and vegetables. The key is to wash the egg shells before adding to the compost pile. This helps get rid of any residual egg white/yolk.
Charcoal
Ashes are good for compost piles, but not all ashes are created equal. The good ashes are from wood burning fires while the bad are from charcoal fires. No type of coal should find its way into your compost bin.
Charcoal and coal in general, contain substances that are toxic to the microorganisms in the soil. These microorganisms are the key to breaking down the composting materials to form nutritious humus ideal for growing grass, flowers and other plants.
Magazines
Magazines fall into a category referred to as “mixed paper” along with things like cereal boxes, phone books and greeting cards. Mixed paper means exactly that; the paper product uses multiple types of paper and fiber lengths.
Magazine composting is sort of a quandary. Some types of magazines are actually beneficial when shredded and added to compost piles, according to a report published by the EPA. The “good” magazines include those that use eco-friendly inks (it may specify this in the front or back cover of the publication), or those that do not contain any of the specialty, high-gloss inks.
If you’re unsure about which magazines are good for composting and which are bad, it’s best to simply trash it. It’s not worth risking your entire compost harvest.
Joe Eitel is a web content writer for Hometown Dumpster Rental, the leading online resource for finding local dumpster rental and junk removal service providers nationwide. Check out the Hometown Dumpster Rental Blog for industry news and eco-friendly tips.
Thanks for reading,
If you enjoyed this post, make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed!
- Rating:
(21 votes, average: 3.71) - Permalink
- Comments (31)
Loading ...
Subscribe
I live with people who SWEAR by recycling, but the truth is that a lot of recycling requires more energy than the ORIGINAL! So, is it cost-effective? Maybe, but if I had MY way I would just throw it ALL away. Why? Because I love ticking off the LIBS of the world!
Our town invites greasy pizza boxes into the compost bins.
Actually, our local council accepts pizza boxes and other food contaminated recyclables in the recycling bin.
Some paper recycling plants accept greasy paper, as the use hot water and in lack of a better term, soap, and they filter the pulp before proceeding to colour pigment removal and the other necessary steps. I just wish would be a more spread practice.
the pizza boxes i got from pizza hut the other day had “recycle me” written on them…
I think they out to caveat their article with “home composting” because here where we live our composting service says putting bones and eggs shells and greasy papers/boxes into the compost bins are fine since they are such a huge operation, this stuff doesn’t do any negative. The article should have also mentioned NOT to put styrofoam anything into recycling since that stuff cannot be recycled.
Where I live plastic bags are recyclable in our normal recycling bin. But the very thin plastic bags you put meat or fruit in from the grocery store are not.
Also pizza boxes, food stained paper towels, and egg shells go into the plant waste / compost bin.
Our city offers free mandatory composting and recycling. Depending on where you live composting and recycling is different. You need to make certain to look into what can and can’t be recycled or composted in your city or town.
I see that some corrections are already made. These are good guides, it’s not to say if local municipalities request different, these are set. I know here we are encouraged to put mixed paper in the recycling bin, and yes, I saw a pizza box that says recycle, but the flyer that comes out from the city quarterly still says no to used food containers in the recycle bin. There is kind of a catch-all. A friend of mine actually has this job, it’s not pleasant but it pays. The recycling trucks are separated by people by hand. in a big ol room full of conveyors and a complex system of carts they sort through the truck contents, so even if you do put something in, there’s a safety valve.
@Kirk
Actually some European countries burn their recylables for energy not due to the cost of recycling but because they concluded that was more enviromentally friendly to of set energy production than the gains provided by recycling.
We go by an easy to remember ‘mantra’ when we recycle.
Anything that was living goes in the worm farm. Anything that can be burnt gets used in the firepit. Pizza boxes are excellent as they often have fat soaked in, and thus, burn quickly.
Plastic drink bottles have several re-uses, but that is for another thread.
According to the (only )RI recycling facility all stretchable plastic like grocery bags, dry-cleaning plastic, fruit bags, trash bags etc. are recyclable. They need to be separated from other plastics though because they clog up the sorting machines which cost a fortune to fix. They advised recycling these soft plastics at local grocery stores – the bins there are not limited to only grocery bags.
This is why I don’t recycle anything. Some hippie is always trying to tell me what I ‘should” and “shouldn’t” recycle, and it changes every single day.
If you want it, come get it out of my garbage can.
I live in an area where the most widely-used facility is a single-stream recycler. They have a large sorting facility that takes your trash apart, sorts is for recycling, and sends most of the rest for fuel. They claim they have never had a single bail rejected from food contamination.
WRONG!
if we keep sending the stuff to the recyclers, they’ll be forced to create ways to recycle it.
There is no excuse for landfills.
Papa johns pizza boxes say “please recycle . . . “
Where we live they do have the cpacity to recycle plastic bags. Either the grocery stores take them or even the general recycling.
That being said their is no issue when it comes to garbage overfilling our landfills or that there is an excess of trash. At least not in the United States. Penn & Teller did an episode on it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzLebC0mjCQ
Please recycle but follow all these stupid rules. I wouldn’t recycle if some one came and did it for me. if you want recycling give some bum a job and let him dig it out of the trash
I look at the pizza box and recycle what has no visible grease marks. Usually the sides and top are able to be recycled.
The other thing that is not recycled efficiently at curbside pickup is glass. If you are able to take glass to a bin or facility that seperates by color, do so. This glass will actually be recycled most efficiently.
You should definitely add in this edit to the article itself:
Plastic shopping bags are almost universally accepted outside grocery stores and many supermarkets. Instead of tossing them in the trash– NO!!– you should take them with you to recycle at the grocery.
Or, better yet— who still uses plastic shopping bags anyway? Get reusable ones and be done with that curse!
Great comments everyone!
The pizza box debate is a good one. The newest recycling technology out there is able to separate grease/fat/oil from paper/cardboard materials, but unfortunately it’s not in widespread use yet.
The fact is that some municipalities are able to recycle things like pizza boxes but others aren’t. That’s why it’s best to contact your local recycling center to find out what there policy is on these types of materials.
I would imagine that 5-10 years from now, pizza boxes and other greasy material will be recyclable at most recycling facilities nationwide.
What I was thinking as I read the article seems borne out by the comments that follow: Different parts of the country (world?) have different recycling policies.
The advice in the original post is interesting – but we have a garbage police where I live. DOn’t see them often but we never know when they’ll appear – and they brook no argument and not knowing is not an excuse when they choose to deliver a fine. Bottom line: Whatever the city says – goes. If they’re wrong, I’m not taking on that battle.
Thanks for the article.
your answers is so perfect ,thank you
Who recycles used napkins?
@ fatefinger, really? Right where i live, theres a lanfill that gets in our drinking water, and it right next to a school, too! All the city does is put a playground on it, which made one kid diagnosed with cancer. Really, not a problem, right? I mean, there are only a million scenarios just like this one. And A floating landill off the coast of california the size of Texas can’t POSSIBLY harm anyone or wildlife in any way? Right? I mean, come ON dude!
In Portland, Corvallis Oregon and surrounding areas, all plastics should not end up in the landfill. There are recycling centers for this. Maybe Russ and his decendents will most likely be watching another landfill be put in next to his home someday and enjoying the extra activity.
I work in the waste industry and want to point out that materials accepted for recycling vary with location. What might be recyclable in one city may not be in another. Check your local recycling acceptance criteria, but follow one simple rule: if you think it might be recyclable but you’re not sure, put it in the recycling. Anything that turns out to be waste can be separated at the recycling facility – it’s part of the process.
Hah @Kirk, one day that attitude will come back to bite you in the arse.
I’ve been putting pizza boxes and other cardboard in my composting pile for years. It breaks down incredibly fast, much faster than leaves. I bag it up over the winter (cut into small pieces) and add it to my pile in midsummer, when all I’m adding is grass, since cardboard is low on nitrogen and grass has excess nitrogen.
I have been recycling for years, and the result is, less garbage. I have a bin for recycling, and another for garbage, and the result is, neither bin gets full fast. If you take the few extra seconds it involves, to remove the labels from the cans, (some cities don’t require the removal), and rinse them out before tossing them in the recycling bin, it will be less room taken at the landfill. After the lid is removed entirely, there may be a small piece of metal sticking up. After one “sliced hand”, I learned to use a vegetable brush to clean the area where the lid separates from the can.
Composting will be very helpful in our environment but if you are leaving on an urban city which do not have space in composting better to dispose your junk on garbage collector or call for a junk removal service in your area. http://855grabmyjunk.com is one service you can call serving Dallas and surrounding area.
Well talking about Pizza Boxes. Many a times I have seen that big brands of pizza do not hesitate to print it in their boxes “recycle me”! If it is really true that greasy things are not recyclable the such bid brands should have the relevant information and should mislead people.