Is It Really Recyclable?
The availability of recycling (both in general and for specific products) depends largely on where you live.Photo: Flickr/Rasmin
One of the most common questions we receive at Earth911 is: “Is Product X recyclable?” If only this could be answered with a “yes” or “no.”
It’s a question asked by consumers, members of the media, manufacturers/retailers and even recyclers on a quest to divert as much waste as possible from landfills.
But the truth is – no matter what the product – there is no easy answer to this question. The reason is that the answer changes depending on what information you are looking for. So let’s figure out a better way to ask the question in order to get the best answer.
Defining “recyclable”
Recycling involves processing a used material back into a raw ingredient that can be used to make something new. This is not to be confused with reuse, where a product is used for the same or a different purpose without any reprocessing required.
Recycling can be as simple as melting down aluminum cans into a sheet of aluminum and then manufacturing a brand new can, or as complex as creating flakes from plastic bottles and using the material as lining for a fleece jacket. The goal is to create a new, useful product to justify not throwing the material away in the first place.
So, according to the above definition and examples, most products can be deemed “recyclable.” The important catch is that recycling is a business, so recyclers must factor in the costs of collecting and processing material against the value of reselling it to determine whether it will be collected for recycling.
The local impact
Like it or not, the availability of recycling (both in general and for specific products) depends largely on where you live. If you recycle through a curbside or drop-off service provided by your local government, accessibility is going to be based on what materials it can sell off to pay for pick-up service.
While most curbside programs accept the “Big Five” (aluminum cans, glass bottles, paper, plastic bottles and steel cans), your community may have decided that the transportation costs and/or worker safety risks of accepting certain materials, such as glass, don’t justify the profits. This doesn’t make the material any less recyclable, but it does mean recycling access is not available in your area.
Let’s go one step further and talk about the different forms of these products. Earth911′s recycling directory includes 20 different materials under the category “paper,” and just over 1 percent of the curbside programs listed will take more than 75 percent of these paper types. Does that make the other five materials any less recyclable, or is your city less green for not accepting them?
Again, it’s important to remember the business side of recycling when answering these questions. Some forms of paper, like greeting cards or juice cartons, are a mixture of paper and other materials like plastic linings which need to be removed prior to recycling. That plastic is important to keep your orange juice in the carton, but it comes with an additional disposal cost.
Don’t live by the code
Many forms of packaging feature a recycling message, and perhaps the most notable is plastic that uses the resin identification chart. These plastics feature a number inside a recycling symbol, which was designed by the Society of the Plastics Industry to tell consumers what type of plastic resin they have. This is necessary for recycling, since different resins have different melting points that can’t be recycled together.
This system creates two primary issues for the recycling public:
- By putting the number in a recycling symbol, consumers may assume that the product is recyclable in any program, which is often not the case.
- If all forms (bottles, bags, etc.) of a certain resin use the same symbol, consumers may assume that any program which accepts the resin in one form will take it in all forms.
This thinking also leads to myths, such as claims that only plastics #1 and #2 are recyclable. While these two plastics are more commonly accepted for recycling, the gap is shrinking.
Earth911′s recycling directory currently features nearly five times as many listings for #2 plastic as #5 plastic, which is another common resin for plastic containers such as butter tubs. But in the past year, the listings for #5 plastic have increased by more than 67 percent, showing that other resins are growing in popularity for recyclers.
All plastics are recyclable no matter what resin or form they come in, but your local program might be restricted based on the markets available once material is collected.
The rules you should obey
The next time you’re trying to figure out where Product X is recyclable, here are a few important tips for getting a more accurate answer:
- Look beyond curbside. In many cases there are plenty of items that can be recycled conveniently, just not through your curbside program. See if your town’s recycling center accepts other products, or look into a retailer recycling program or a mail-in program.
- Know the ingredients. For products made of only one material (e.g. an aluminum can), recycling is pretty straightforward. But a computer monitor is a mix of glass, metals and plastics, which means recycling involves determining a market for all three materials. If your product doesn’t contain at least one valuable material, it will lessen the chances of universal recyclability.
- Read the fine print. In recycling, it’s rarely an all-or-nothing scenario when it comes to what is accepted. Learning what specifically is and isn’t accepted in a program is a good rule of thought for preventing contamination. If your product is not mentioned by name, it’s a good bet that it isn’t accepted.
Related articles
Is Food Packaging Really Recyclable?
Recycling Programs Losing Money, But Residents Are Still Paying
We’ve Found the Most Recycled Material of 2009
As of June 17th 2011 we have upgraded our comment system to use Facebook comments. The below comments are closed and are listed for historical purposes.
Ed Secrest
posted on July 13th, 2010 at 10:48 am
I am a septic system installer and I am having a hard time finding ways to recycle my excess PVC material (scrap pipe and fittings from new and old systems). Does anyone know if PVC is recyclable. Also, is there ways to buy recycled pipe and fittings.
Ed Secrest
Green Earth Construction Services, LLC
Berlin, NJ
Carol Clark
posted on July 14th, 2010 at 8:52 am
As a municipal Recycling Coordinator I would love to steal this article and make each and every “concerned resident” and even our upper management read it! Yes, providing “recycling” for as many things as possible is a great environmental idea, but we have to support that idea with economics. Supply and demand. Available markets. Transportation costs and collection vehicle limitations, etc. Great article Trey!
James Brinsfield
posted on July 14th, 2010 at 9:16 am
per the usgbc.org
The Uni-Bell PVC Pipe Association Member Policy on PVC Pipe Recycling reads as follows: “Uni-Bell member companies support the recycling of PVC pipe products. Uni-Bell members will accept for appropriate recycling all clean, non-contaminated PVC pipes and PVC fittings products and parts which the member has manufactured.”
frances
posted on July 14th, 2010 at 11:24 am
What about recycling old tires? They are using the rubber in so many cool new ways and charging a lot of money for those materials, yet it seems no one wants the tires and it’s nearly a crime to transport them even to the dump. Some chump dumped 6 tires on a piece of property we own.
Robert
posted on July 14th, 2010 at 12:52 pm
Nice article Trey,
The logic conclusion is that recycling has more to do with dollars and cents than it does sustainability.
The new recycled product eventually fails and is either recycled again or discarded. The cycle continues until the item finds it’s way into a landfill. In the end…everything has it’s end.
Do we have any other sustainable options other than digging a big hole and hiding our un-recyclable trash in the earth?
If money where not object…any creative ideas out there?
Trash into energy!
Compress and make building materials!
Reginald Whibbey
posted on July 15th, 2010 at 6:43 pm
A day is coming soon when we can throw everything into one bin and trash will not exist. Manufacturers will create products that are recyclable. The industry becomes more efficient every day.
anny
posted on July 19th, 2010 at 10:10 am
somebody know about recycling rings pull tabs from beverage cans for money?
Gandydancer
posted on July 19th, 2010 at 4:04 pm
@Anny: When the CA CRV program first started it was possible, or someone thought it was possible, for recycling centers to “prove” they’d recycled the cans, and get the corresponding deposit refunds from the state, by turning in just the rings. So for a brief period the price per pound of soda/beer can rings at some buyback centers got quite high. But that insanity ended quickly. You need to recycle the whole can.
RedEagle
posted on July 23rd, 2010 at 3:59 pm
Some recycling is expensive. As the owner of Federal Recyclers recycling company I can tell you that many times it isn’t cost effective. For instance, last year the price of plastic was horrible, I collected eight 4ft x 4ft x 6ft tall boxes and filled them with plastic. When I transported them to the processing facility my cost was over $250 (fuel, labor) not including my cost of the boxes $12 each (recycled from food company) we got paid $40 for the plastic. My total cost was $346 and my profit was $0 I was over $300 in the hole.
I’m a quick learner for the next year we gave the plastic away to a plastic recycling company as long as they picked it up and gave our boxes back. It cost us money and warehouse space to collect it, but it is part of the recycling we have to do. We make money in other aspects of the business that help pay for the recycling of the plastics. I have found that for many people if it is inconvenient and also costs them money they are not going to participate in recycling.
Also the cost of operating a recycling facility can be very expensive. Just like any legal business we have rent, utilities, commercial insurance, liability insurance, fuel cost, labor, taxes, daily expenses, plus permits and licensing. Recycling is not cheap and that’s why many things are not recycled. They could be recycled, but it is not cost effective. We recycle as many things as we can at our facility and add more to list each week our motto is “If you can plug it in we can recycle it”
FL Sunshine
posted on July 31st, 2010 at 10:01 am
I have several old high school yearbooks. Is there any way to recycle these?
Deborah Stewart
posted on August 9th, 2010 at 2:55 pm
I have several encyclopedias that I do not want to throw in the landfill. Can these be recycled? Live in the Sacramento area.
Thanks.
Lori
posted on September 1st, 2010 at 11:23 am
I’m looking for a way to dispose of the plastic bottles that things like pesticides/yard chemicals (Round-up, Scotts liquid Turf Builder, etc.) are packed in. Anyone know of someone who takes them?
I also have old cloth from clothing that is no longer usable. It seems that usable clothing can go to many resources, but I’m having trouble finding a place to take the non-usable. Where can it go?
Thanks,
Lori
William Post
posted on December 5th, 2010 at 1:37 pm
I can see how people do get confused about recycling. All these SPI numbers by which plastics are supposed to be identifiable are also a bit unclear. How much to people at material recycling facilities really look at them? How about some of the newer bio-based polymers?
Steve Carpenter
posted on December 6th, 2010 at 4:30 pm
I work at a MRF (Material Recovery Facility) where recyclable material comes to us in two “streams”:one is fiber (cardboard,newspaper,magazines,etc.) and one is containers (tin cans, glass, plastic of all shapes and sizes, aluminum,etc.). I can assure you that we do indeed check the numbers on the bottom of these containers as they pass on the sort line and them throw them into appropriate “cages” to be made into bales when enough have accumulated. But there also are a lot of contaminants that have to pulled as well, items such as scrap metal, light bulbs, sharps (ie. needles), medical waste as well as plain old trash. It is an ongoing battle to educate the public on proper disposal of these items as well as our obligation to deal with these items in the proper fashion. Knowing you are doing the right thing is just not enough motivation for the average citizen, sad to say. We will continue to do all we can on this end and hope that we can all work together toward a common goal:the preservation of our beautiful planet Earth!