Think you’re doing the planet a favor by tossing those grocery bags into your recycling bin? Think again.
Plastic bags are lightweight and can get caught in recycling machinery, degrading the effectiveness of the sorting process and causing potential breakdowns. This not only disrupts the recycling process but can also be dangerous for workers at recycling facilities.
Single-use plastics in particular—especially small items like straws, bags, and cutlery—aren’t easy to recycle because they fall into the crevices of recycling machinery.
Many recycling centers won’t even accept them. Instead of throwing them in your regular bin, take plastic bags to designated drop-off locations at grocery stores where they can be properly processed.
Many recycling facilities cannot process plastic bags. Instead of placing them in your recycling bin, take them to designated collection points.
Your Friday night pizza ritual might be sabotaging your recycling efforts more than you realize. While recent studies have shown that pizza boxes can technically be recycled, the reality isn’t so simple.
Grease and oil are two of the worst contaminants in paper recycling, and greasy pizza boxes are one of the biggest culprits. Since paper doesn’t get heated during the process, grease and oil combine with the pulp, which can ruin the entire batch.
Studies have found that corrugated pizza boxes in the recycling stream have an average grease content of 1 to 2 percent by weight level. Even though some facilities can now handle lightly greased boxes, the average pizza box has about a 2-3% contamination rate, meaning 2-3% of a pizza box by weight typically has grease and/or cheese on it.
That doesn’t sound like a lot, but let’s also consider the fact that China stopped accepting any recycling at all over a 1% contamination rate back in 2018. The safest bet?
Cut off the clean parts and recycle those, while trashing the greasy bottom sections.
Office workers and privacy-conscious folks might be shocked to learn that all that carefully shredded paper is causing massive headaches at recycling facilities. Shredded paper is very lightweight, which can cause even the lightest breeze to blow it out of your bin or the truck as the recycling load makes its way to a recycling facility, leading to litter.
On top of that, once at the facility, the same situation can occur where little strips of paper can make their way into bales of other recycled content even with the slightest breeze or air blown by fans. The shorter the fibers, the less recyclable the paper.
Shredded paper has already had its fibers torn apart prior to the recycling process, making it less usable. During mechanical sorting, shredded paper often gets mixed in with the small pieces of glass or falls through the filter screen and recycling centers are unable to retrieve it.
Shredding companies can handle high volume shredding because the shredded material is kept separate, does not have to be sorted, and does not become degraded when it is mingled with other recyclables. To properly dispose of shredded paper, it is essential to verify the specific requirements of your municipality or recycling facility.
Adhering to local guidelines will help prevent unnecessary waste and ensure that your shredded paper is processed in an environmentally responsible manner.
That takeout container from your favorite restaurant might seem recyclable, but Styrofoam (technically expanded polystyrene or EPS) is recycling’s biggest headache. Despite its good recyclability, the willingness of PS recycling remains low, largely due to the high recycling cost and limited profitability.
Only 10-12% of Styrofoam produced globally is recycled. In the U.S., 80% of Styrofoam waste ends up in landfills, according to the EPA.
Consequently, very little polystyrene is recycled at present. Because this process requires specialized facilities, most recycling centers do not accept polystyrene — and because of its bulk, high transport costs make it economically unviable.
This is often because Styrofoam breaks easily and sticks to other materials in your bin causing contamination. Please check with your municipality before assuming they offer Styrofoam or EPS recycling.
Most municipal recycling programs explicitly tell residents to keep Styrofoam out of their bins – it’s just too problematic to handle in standard facilities.
Think of wet paper like a soggy cookie – once the structure is compromised, there’s no going back. The recycling process relies on those intact fibers to create new, strong paper products.
Soggy newspapers, damp cardboard boxes, and moldy magazines should go straight into your regular trash, not your recycling bin. Rain-soaked mail and water-damaged documents are also culprits that can contaminate entire batches of otherwise good recyclable paper.
Even if only a small portion of your paper is wet, it’s better to err on the side of caution.
Even though they’re often labeled with the same #1 PET recycling symbol as beverage bottles, clamshell containers are processed completely differently, and most facilities can’t handle them. The problem lies in their shape and the way they’re manufactured – they’re designed to be lightweight and crack easily, which makes them troublesome for sorting machinery.
Many recycling plants will pull these containers out during the sorting process and send them straight to landfills. The thin plastic also tends to break into small pieces that contaminate other recyclables.
Your best bet is to reuse these containers for food storage at home or look for alternatives like cardboard packaging when shopping.
The contamination is so problematic that some glass recycling facilities have to throw out tons of otherwise perfectly good material when ceramics sneak through. Restaurant dishware, decorative vases, and that casserole dish that finally gave up the ghost all need to go in your regular trash.
Think of glass recycling like baking – you need the right ingredients at the right temperatures, or the whole recipe fails.
They’re too small to be captured by the screens and conveyor systems that separate different materials. Even worse, the plastic resin used to make disposable utensils is often a complex mixture that doesn’t play well with other plastics during the recycling process.
When these utensils do make it through sorting, they can contaminate batches of other recyclable plastics. Single-use plastics in particular—especially small items like straws, bags, and cutlery—aren’t easy to recycle because they fall into the crevices of recycling machinery.
Many recycling centers won’t even accept them. Even compostable plastic utensils, which seem like an eco-friendly choice, don’t belong in recycling bins – they need special composting facilities to break down properly.
When these cans get crushed or heated during the recycling process, they can explode with enough force to damage equipment and injure workers. The metal itself is perfectly recyclable, but only when the can is completely empty and depressurized.
Some facilities have special procedures for handling aerosols, but many simply refuse to accept them because the risk isn’t worth it. Paint cans with leftover product pose similar dangers, as do butane lighters and compressed air dusters.
The rule of thumb is simple: if it sprays, hisses, or has any pressure left, it doesn’t belong in your recycling bin. Most communities have special hazardous waste collection days for these items.
In 2022, only 22.3% of e-waste was recycled globally. The rest is dumped, traded, or recycled under poor conditions, releasing toxic chemicals like lead and mercury.
Regular recycling facilities simply aren’t equipped to safely dismantle phones, tablets, or laptops. When electronics get mixed in with regular recyclables, they can contaminate entire batches and damage sorting equipment.
The batteries alone pose fire risks that can shut down entire recycling operations. The rise of e-waste is five times faster than its rate of recycling.
Just 1% of rare earth element demand is currently met by e-waste recycling. Instead of regular recycling, look for manufacturer take-back programs, electronics retailers that accept old devices, or special e-waste recycling events in your community where trained technicians can safely handle these complex items.