Recycling is important. What is even more important is recycling right. When you recycle something that shouldn’t be, it doesn’t just “get sorted out”. For example, soft plastics in a hard plastic machine, could clog the machine and the whole batch of recyclable resources would end up in a landfill. I would also like to make it a poit that recycling depends on the community you live in. Also, numbers on the bottom of plastic containers and such have different values. Just because something has the three chasing arrows, does not make it recyclable. Something recyclable in my town, might not be acceptable in yours, and vise versa. Packaging does not know where it is and is not going to sort itself out! Here are 20 things you should not recycle or recycle mindfully.
#1 Milk Cartons: Some people are going to disagree with me on this one. That is totally fine. That is because it is possible that in your community, milk cartons are totally acceptable. However, in my community, and many others, milk cartons are a big no. This is because they typically have a thin layer of polyethylene (plastic) between the paper.
#2 Multiplastic or Multimaterial Items: This includes anything with multiple types of plastic or paper such as milk cartons, or notebooks (of course you can separate the plastic from the paper in a notebook). Different colored plastics are also hard to recycle. Black plastic, especially, can cause difficulty. Again, this can vary depending on where you live as some places can take more complex materials. If you still want to recycle something that isn't acceptable in your town, you can always try taking it to a recycling facility. Most of the time that is based on how much your town invests in a recycling program.
#3 Plastic turf: I am bringing this up because I actually just recently protested for no plastic turf fields in my town. I think they do more harm than good for the environment. For example, they have to be replaced every 8-10 years and because they can’t be recycled (as the plastic is just too thin), they take up huge amounts of space in landfills.
#4 Thin (Soft) plastic: Thin plastic is very hard to recycle because it has poor quality. This can range from plastic bags, food packaging, wrappers, etc. I know I explained this already, but once more, machinary needs to work effectively.Soft plastics can get caught and tangle around the machinery. If this happens, the machines need to be stopped and cleared.
#5 Hazardous waste: This includes batteries, gas, anything flammable, explosives, or anything toxic. However, some of these items, such as batteries can be recycled at recycling facilities. As mentioned in previous videos, my family saves our batteries and recycles them all at once to save on transportation. I encourage you to recycle properly as it has many environmental and economic benefits.
#6 Bulky Plastics (check locally): When I say bulky plastics, I am referring to things like childrens toys, plastic chairs, laundry baskets, buckets, recycling bins (isn’t that ironic?), and milk crates.
I strongly suggest you check local rules. However, before you start trying to recycle this stuff, I strongly recommend reselling or repairing any items like these instead of recycling them.
#7 Contaminated Waste: This is very important. For example, a material like aluminum foil is typically 100% recyclable. However, if there is any leftover food on it, it should not be recycled. This also includes any pizza boxes with oil on them. Paper especially cannot have food residue on it because it’s recycling process doesn’t get hot enough to get rid of food contamination. This means if any contaminated glass, plastic, or aluminum rubs off on plastic in mixed recycling, the whole batch could end up in a landfill.
#8 Electronics: Again, do not put them in the recycle bin or trash. Electronics have a special recycling procedure. Don’t just throw them away, but definitely do not try putting them in your curbside recycling bin. Send them to a repair place, a refurbish place, or hand it down to someone who could benefit from whatever device you are done with.
#9 Food/compostable material: This is similar to any contaminated waste. To put it simply, food can not be recycled. This is because it breaks down so easily.
Similar to how paper can only be down-cycled, because of it’s low quality, food wouldn’t even be able to do that. Food waste is best as compost. Think about it, if you tried to recycle food, what would it become?
#10 Broken Glass: This is frustrating to know especially because typical “single use” glass can be recycled indefinitely. However if that breaks it has to go to a landfill and all of its resources become useless. The biggest reason for this is because small shards of broken glass are not only very difficult to separate from other recyclables, but obviously dangerous too.
#11 Propane containers: If you aren’t aware, a propane container can be made of materials like steel or aluminum. They contain a chemical called propane (obviously) which is not recyclable, as it is hazardous. What you can do is try to give it to a hazardous waste recycling company or even try giving it back to the company you bought it from. Just do not try curbside recycling it.
#12 Clothes: Clothes are often made from mixed materials. This can especially make them hard to recycle. Clothes are one of those materials that should not go in a curbside recycling bin, but can be easily repaired, resold, or redesigned to make something old new again. I highly recommend buying used clothes when you need a new outfit, repairing clothes that are ripped, reusing useful pieces of cloth for other things, swapping clothes with friends, or putting different accessories together to make completely new styles.
#13 Ceramic Glass: Like other materials, ceramics are made of a lower quality material, so when mixed with other glasses, they would weaken the recycled product. Typically they are not accepted with curbside recycling. If you have chipped bowls, I would encourage you to just keep using them as long as they can be. They don’t make them any worse or better to eat out of.
#14 Drinking glasses: Just like ceramics, drinking glasses cannot be recycled. But this is for a different reason. Glasses contain added chemicals that strengthen them and help them hold hot and cold beverages. This also means the glass has a different melting point than other “single use” glass so it will not recycle properly with other glasses.
#15 Window panes: Just like drinking glasses, this flat household glass is made with chemicals (probably even more though because you aren’t drinking out of a window), which gives them a higher melting point than most other glasses.
#16 Coat hangers- I find this one interesting. I usually don’t have to think about getting rid of coat hangers… but there comes a time in every person's life. When I say coat hangers, I am referring to any material, plastic, metal, wood, felt, there are all sorts of hangers out there. They do however, have an odd shape that can easily cause difficulties for the machines. They can get tangled up just like thin plastic. Plus, when have you ever seen a recycle sign on a coat hanger?
#17 Straight up wood (It is almost always compostable though!)- This is simply not recyclable at least not outside your house. If however, your wood is natural and made of organic material (and not painted), it can be composted especially at a composting center. Just check with them first. But before disposing of any of these resources, find a second or third use for them. Use popsicle sticks in your garden, make a coat hook (speaking of hangers: that’s what my dad did), or build a box, or do any kind of woodwork.
#18 Bowling balls- I’m not even sure why I am bringing up this one--I’ve never tried recycling a bowling ball, but apparently it’s more common than I thought. Some people try recycling them weekly! Not only are bowling balls super heavy, they are also made of a variety of complex materials. If you can, just donate the ball to a bowling alley near you, or give it away as a gift.
#19 Light Bulbs- Light bulbs can be recycled, however, they need to be recycled in a special facility. Also, different light bulbs can be made of different things. If you want to know the best way to dispose of burnt out light bulbs, check out this article. And always buy LED’s!
#20 Styrofoam- You’re probably aware of how light styrofoam is. That is because it is made of polystyrene, a plastic that is 95% air. It is very hard to clean making it that much more difficult to recycle, and because of it’s low quality and lightweight, it is not cost effective to ship, store, and recycle this material. For these reasons, it can’t be recycled. The best thing you can do is avoid styrofoam at all costs. One tip I have found extremely helpful is bringing my own tupperware for takeout or leftovers at restaurants. And you can do this no matter what the take out container is: styrofoam, plastic, or paper. Save resources whenever and wherever you can.
I hope you enjoyed this blog. Let me know if you have any other items that you know are a no-no to us recyclers. I will probably be making a part two to this blog sometime soon. If you learned anything, consider subscribing. Stick around for more content weekly. For now, peace.