Does This Recycle? What to Do If You're Not Sure [Lifehacker]
Does This Recycle? What to Do If You're Not Sure
Even the most avid recyclers have moments of brain freeze where we forget if something can be recycled or needs to be just tossed out. Here's what to do when you're not sure.
Photo by clurr.
Of course, the easiest approach would be to fling the item into the regular trash. On the other hand, is it really that big of a deal if you guess wrong and toss an non-recyclable item in with your other recyclables? Slate's Nina Shen Rastogi says that depends.
A single plastic cup in the wrong trash bin isn't going to bring the entire recycling industry to its knees, so mixing similar items—like milk jugs and yogurt cups, for example—isn't much to worry about. Putting distinctly different materials together, however, might cause a big headache (think glass bottles in machinery meant to digest plastic recyclables). Most unwanted items will be culled at the recycling facility before they can do any damage, but it never hurts to be proactive.
If you think the packaging from the frozen dinner you just ate might be recyclable but you're not sure, here's what to do:
The next time you find yourself hovering indecisively over a set of trash bins, here are some rules of thumb. Plastics marked No. 1 or No. 2 are virtually guaranteed to be accepted, so go ahead and toss them in with your recycling. Newspaper, corrugated cardboard, magazines, and office paper are almost always good to go as well. If your mystery object doesn't fall into one of those categories, trash it.
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