WishCycling - Is the practice of putting things in the recycle bin that are not recyclable, but think or even wish they would be. This is more likely things you assumed were recyclable or forgot were not. Below is the best list we could find on what should not be recycled and resources to learn more. Blue-binning non-recyclable items reduces the effectiveness of and inflates the expense of recycling and in-turn your taxes. Some of these items are even a danger to recycling employees and cause injuries. Why is this important to you? Following the below tips as best you can could reduce your tax burden, fossil fuel for hauling by up to 57%. Here are my high level calculations. Recycling right now costs up to 57% more in taxes than landfilling. Please don't stop recycling. current cost per ton for my town is roughly $142 per ton and $82 per ton for landfilling. These numbers fluctuate every month even to where it is less expensive to recycle than landfill. Fossil fuel savings are acquired by not shipping this to the sorting facility and using all of the electricity, and fossil fuel needed to sort it, only to make an extra trip to the landfill.
Items that will not be recycled.
Sharp items: These can cause worker injury and are too small to recycle blue bin anyway as they fall through the grates. So in the end cost you money to sort it out and make an extra trip to the landfill. It also creates a lot of emissions to do so unnecessarily.
Tangling Items: Don't blue bin wires, cables, hoses, and plastic wrap. These things tangle in the machinery and both slow and shut down the process. This ups the cost of recycling, lowers the effectiveness, and when people cut these items out of the machines it sometimes causes injuries. No one wants that. Cables and wires can be recycled by individuals, at a metal recycler for a small profit. See metal recycling. Your local grocery store profits from your recycling of plastic film. Why throw it out? Don't you want an awesome high end grocery store? :)
Non-recycleable plastic - All plastic is recycleable, but at least 75% of it is not via Blue bin. As a general rule clean and empty plastic bottles, jars, jugs and tubs of food and household products are recyclable so what won't be?
Large plastic storage bins - The system is designed to recycle only food, drink, and household item containers. Nothing else. Anything else is just an added cost to you and added fossil fuel to end up in the landfill anyway.
broken plastic pieces - fall through the grates and can cause injury to workers. Much better landfill than none broken and smashed up items. No need to add extra trips.
toys : Many of these are collectable and profitable on Ebay or facebook. There is no greater joy than putting a toy in the hands of a child where it brings them education or joy. Missing pieces of expensive toys are not only highly profitable to sell, but hugely ecological, and adds enjoyment to the toy that is missing a piece, and quite possibly a higher resale value and likliness to be re-used again and again.
plastic film, Quite possibly the largest ecological problem in the world. This product's inventors, did so to be environmental, and save trees ironically. Feed the profitability of your grocery store so they can in turn provide you with the best grocery store one would go to. Feed the companies that profit from its recycling, to prevent them from buying new plastic to make decking that never needs manufacturing to replace, and you never need to waste time replacing.
non-container items made from plastic.
Non-recyclable metals - All metals are recyclable but most not via the blue bin.
Not Recyclable or won't be:
Nails, screws, and any other non-container metal object or fragment. These items fall through the machinery and can cause workers serious injury.
non-container items made from metal. Their systems are built to sort food and household product items. The rest go to landfill.
Non-recycleable glass - As a general rule clean and empty plastic bottles, jars, jugs and tubs of food and household products are recyclable.
Not Recyclable or won't be
Windows, sheets of glass and broken glass - these will likely shatter in transport and processing and could cause serious worker injury.
non-container items made from glass
When in doubt, throw it out. If you don't think it is recyclable just green bin it, or better yet look it up on Recyclapedia, which is linked to from the Massachusetts facilities that currently process our blue bin. It answered most of my early questions on recycle or don't. I will try to list the most frequently confused items below.
Food - most recycling companies list food as one of their top contaminants. Contamination is the enemy of recycling, and the major thing that keeps it expensive. So the big question is should you wash your recycles. Yes and no. It is true that using water uses electricity and therefore fossil fuel. We recommend the following: Dump or Spoon out excess food and drinkable liquids into your compost ( see Composting cooked food below), set containers with residue in your sink next to your dirty dishes, Rinse or wash your dirty dishes over the food containers. You can also presoak or rinse recyclables in reclaimed water. Not recommended, but if you feel the need to rinse more, then use cold water and do a very quick rinse. The goal is to get the lions share, and reduce the problem. These facilities are equipped to deal with food waste but sending them too much simply reflects back to the cost to you.
Buy in bulk: Consolidating containers does a lot to maximize the effectiveness of recycling. Less to clean, less waste, Less Fossil fuel needed, easier sorting.
Composting Cooked Food: You can compost cooked food, it just takes longer and has oils that should require a good compost bin spray down when adding, and at least once a week to dilute. Too much oil, or water will cause it to go anaerobic which smells actually releases methane instead of CO2. This in turn causes more pest attraction. Have you ever gotten several pounds of white rice with your Chinese food? This doesn't even have oil on it.
Items smaller than a credit card. These items slip through the grates, and get landfilled. This leads to the next two tips.
Loose caps and lids - These items are most times too small and fall through the machines. If you recycle it with the lid on they will go through the process which has ways to extract and recycle any incompatible lid materials.
broken pieces of anything won't be recycled. The sorting process prioritizes via people or machines the most recyclable items, which would be entire containers,
Containers should be emptied and the cap put back on. There is a process for separating the caps materials from the container, but not to recycle a loose cap.
Anything with noticeable amount of liquid or other material in it won't be recycled. Workers have no way of knowing if it is water or a hazardous chemical. These will go to the landfill.
Mixed material items: Unless they are containers with the lids attached. They don't have staff, or equipment that separates an umbrella's metal from its cloth or plastic film.
Don't buy it, but if you do don't throw it out, unless you can do it responsibly. This is always an easy answer, but an extremally complex topic to accomplish. Containers full of liquid - Workers do not know if these items contain hazardous materials, and will send them to the landfill.