May 18, 2016
Page 5
Things to Keep Out of Your Recycling Bin
The ins and outs
of recycling
r ebeCCa k offMan
You’re at home in front of your
recycling bin. Maybe the bin is in
your driveway, or in the parking
lot of your apartment complex.
Maybe you’re in your bathrobe.
Maybe it’s raining. And you’ve
got a take-out container. Or some
weird packaging you’ve never
seen before. Is it recycling or gar-
bage? Read on for what goes in
and what stays out of your home
recycling bin.
When deciding which plastics
to throw in your curbside bin,
“pay attention to shape and size,”
says Betty Shelley, a recycling ex-
pert who has answered calls and
emails at Metro’s Recycling In-
formation Center.
Shapes to look for? Bottles,
jars, buckets and tubs. Remember
bathroom products like shampoo
and body lotion, as well as garden
pots, are also often recyclable at
home.
What stays out of your home
bin: Plastic bags: “Plastic bags ab-
solutely can’t go in,” says Shelley.
“They get tangled in the machin-
ery at the sorting facility.”
Plastic lids are also a no. These
tend to be small and thin, and so
are easily hidden by paper and
cardboard as they make their way
along the conveyor belts at sorting
facilities. They can then end up
in bales of paper or cardboard –
making those bales harder to sell,
and therefore harder to actually
recycle into new paper products.
Plastic clamshells, those con-
tainers that salad greens, cher-
ry tomatoes, and deli salads and
sandwiches are packed in, along
with some other similar plastics,
are not recyclable at home. Sorting
facilities don’t have the machinery
to deal with them and the plastic
they’re made of can be harder to
sell to recyclers.
It’s confusing though, because
a lot of these plastics have a recy-
cling number on them, surrounded
by a triangle of arrows.
“Ignore the arrows. Ignore the
numbers,” says Shelley. The num-
ber is an indicator to industry in-
siders – it tells them what kind of
resin is in the plastic and what its
properties are but as doesn’t mean
it’s recyclable at the curb.
Everything from junk mail to
Things like household batteries
and a range of plastics may fall
into the category of what Singh
calls “wishful recycling” – things
that people want to be recycled,
but that actually aren’t on the list
of what you can recycle at home.
The Metro Recycling Infor-
mation Center answers questions
about whatever you’re not sure
how to get rid of 8:30 a.m. and 5
p.m. Monday through Saturday at
503-234-3000.
Rebecca Kaufman writes for
the regional government agency
Metro.
by
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503-288-0033
Plastic bags are not
recyclable at the curb
because the bags get
tangled in the machinery
at the sorting facility.
newspapers to egg cartons (the
paper ones) goes in your home re-
cycling bin. You can also recycle
milk and juice cartons, as well as
aseptic containers that allow soup,
broth and soy milk to be stored
at room-temperature. These con-
tainers are not 100 percent paper,
but because the manufacturers of
these kinds of cartons have invest-
ed in ways to collect and recycle
them they’re a part of the home
recycling system.
What stays out: Frozen and
refrigerated food boxes. Keep
food boxes that go in the freezer
or refrigerator out of your home
recycling. Think wafles, popsi-
cles or butter boxes. They may
not seem different from cereal or
cookie boxes but they are made
with a plastic that keeps them
from getting soggy when exposed
to moisture. Milk, juice and asep-
tic cartons are layered rather than
penetrated with plastic, making
the materials easier to separate.
Paper cups also stay out of the
bin. Like freezer boxes, “paper”
cups are also made with plastic so
they don’t dissolve into a sodden
mass when illed with liquids.
A cost-eficient recycling sys-
tem depends on making sure recy-
clables are actually recycled once
they leave your bin. So mucking
them up with the stuff that doesn’t
belong there – that either slows
the sorting lines like plastic bags
do, or makes other recyclables less
marketable like lids can – eventu-
ally drives up costs for everyone.
When in doubt, keep it out.
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