Surprise! Five things you shouldn't recycle

comments from our community

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  Posted by nanilee2002 Sat Oct 18, 2008 9:34am PDT

  I sure have learned a lot on this site. Thank you every one!!!!!!

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  Posted by Rain C Sun Oct 19, 2008 3:13am PDT

  You forgot to mention PEOPLE. And more specifically EX-GIRLFRIENDS. But I'll let it slide.

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  Posted by maplesyrupsyummy Mon Oct 20, 2008 8:34am PDT

  INCORRECT- you CAN recycle sticky notes If by sticky notes, you are referring to the common Post-it, they can indeed be recycled. The adhesive is water soluble and can easily be recycled with other paper (including envelopes with windows, FYI).

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  Posted by diannemcelroy Mon Oct 20, 2008 8:46am PDT

  how bout egg cartons

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  Posted by kaleel007 Mon Oct 20, 2008 8:54am PDT

  Please note that Post-it notes can be recycled in the regular paper recycle stream. Please check with 3M the maker of Post-it products if you have questions.

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  Posted by amtjmj@sbcglobal.net Mon Oct 20, 2008 9:10am PDT

  Fortunately the Waste Management company my city uses recycles things like pizza boxes, napkins and paper towels in the green waste bin. This is our "Wet" recycling which then goes to composting. I don't use my garbage disposal anymore. Food scraps,bones, wet paper, cardboard contaminated with food (pizza boxes), all go into the green waste container. We have very little actual garbage going to the land fill.

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  Posted by Bondo_Red Mon Oct 20, 2008 11:41am PDT

  So first the idea of global warming hadn't been conceived and no one cared about the environment other than outdoorsmen.then recycling came out and that was good but trash was bad.now we're still supposed to recylce but some things recycle better than others? I can't wait till I can afford an incinerator.

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  Posted by capmom131 Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:15pm PDT

  I have watched our waste collection people remove pizza boxes from our regular trash and put them into the recycling container.

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  Posted by cella Mon Oct 20, 2008 4:15pm PDT

  ya know if certain products were made to be discontinued,and the companies not allowed to make em anymore..no problem,people spend money SOMETIMES OUT OF BEING LAZY..make effecient products and everybody is happy.. this is a simple thing to do if ya not using a electrical device ,,simply unplug from the outlet..people wont do that ,because ..ah you guessed its to much of a physical effort to plug back in..shame shame ,,so spend spend spend

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  Posted by doowop Tue Oct 21, 2008 12:35am PDT

  this article has a lot of incorrect information: 1) Pizza Boxes - a lot of curbside recyclers are now accepting them as they have better machinery to deal with the food particles on them. 2) Sticky notes - these recycle with the rest of your scrap paper. 3) Plastic caps - these are recyclable, just not with your curbside recycling. Caps have numbers on them just like other plastic and most local recycling centers take them, and most major cities have special plastics recycling days where you can drop off your miscellaneous plastic. 4) Wet paper - absolutely recyclable - does the author think that recycle bins on rainy days are just emptied into dumpsters, and how exactly do they think paper is recycled, by mind-melding it together? The fact is, recycling is different in every community so one just needs to make sure they are following the instructions set by their local recyclers, and demanding for more extensive recycling by their curbside. Portland has recently added pizza boxes along with plastic tubs & plant containers to curbside recycling, and it's increased recycling tremendously. The bigger problem recyclers see are those who set out their recycling in plastic bags instead of bins or paper bags - plastic bags can ruin recycling machines and a lot of cities are starting to outlaw them. Not only are they harmful to nature in so many ways, but remember they are also a petroleum based product so along with not degrading for thousands of years, it also furthers our oil consumption. The other thing that we can do is minimize the amount of plastics we buy in the first place (one easy thing - when you bring your cloth grocery bag, also bring your existing plastic produce bags and automatically you have reduced consumption) - it's the old adage of reduce, reuse, recycle. You just start out with something small and slowly start adding to your eco habits and it's a lot less stressful and you'll look back and realize how much of an impact you are making. I now only have garbage once every two months instead of once a week because I have containers of 1-7 recycling in my garage for plastics and recycle or compost nearly everything else. I'm not living off the grid or anything dramatic, but I did cut my garbage bill in half for not needing weekly pickup, and really gained a better sense of how much plastic I actually consume by not simply trashing (i.e., relocating) it, which has helped me take steps to reduce initial consumption. I realize I'm incredibly fortunate to live in a 'green' town but it only became this way because citizens demanded it.

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  Posted by Vicks Tue Oct 21, 2008 3:37am PDT

  For Dianne McElroy, who asked about egg cartons. I don't know if this helps you, but my Publix (I was surprised to see) recycles styrofoam egg cartons. So, you might want to look to see if you find a supermarket that has bins outside the store for stuff like that.

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  Posted by Yeah.Ok. Tue Oct 21, 2008 4:53am PDT

  I say put it in the recycle bin anyway, even if you're not certain. At least you are making more of an effort than those who choose to ma no effort at all. It's 2008, and I think we have people smart enough to figure out how all the items mentioned above CAN be recycled. People are so wasteful though- they don't recycle the things that can be recycled and reused. Ignorance and laziness.

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  Posted by catsrool36 Tue Oct 21, 2008 6:21am PDT

  Egg cartons are not recyclable. They already have been recycled.

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  Posted by juice9009 Tue Oct 21, 2008 1:19pm PDT

  You should not put items in recycling if you are not certain they are recycleable. Non-recycleable items such as the wrong types of plastic can actually contaminate an entire "load" of recycling and make the whole lot useless! For example, many communites only recycle types 1 and 2 plastic- and other types can contaminate it all if the sorting machines do do pull out the "bad" plastic. Do your research and see what your community accepts for recycling!

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  Posted by iliveinbend Tue Oct 21, 2008 7:40pm PDT

  What about cloth? fabrics? used popcorn bags? old socks? small rugs? leather?

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