What paper and card can and cannot be recycled?
by Michael Smith (Veshengro)
There are some people who think that anything that looks paper or cardboard can be put into the paper and card recycling bin but the truth is different, very different.
Many people put those paper cups from Starbucks, Wild Bean Cafe, etc. into the recycling bins – it happens at events as much as elsewhere – but those cups, because they have a wax or more likely a plastic coating on the inside, cannot be recycled and hence must not ever go into a recycling bin.
The same goes for pizza boxes and any other paper or cardboard that may have some food or drink remains on it. Also nothing that has oils on it go into a recycling box. Just a small bit of that and the entire batch is contaminated.
Any paper or card that is glossy, for instance, is more than likely a laminate, that it to say that during the finishing process a thin film of plastic is heat sealed onto the paper, and must not enter the recycling stream either.
Printed paper also has to be considered carefully, by the way. Many an inkjet printer uses inks that are not waterproof and could, if they run, contaminate a batch of paper in the recycling process.
Laser print on the other hand, newsprint, and those from photocopiers is find and does not run in the vat and can safely be given into the recycling stream.
You may think now that there is not much that can be really and truly be recycled as far as paper and card are concerned and, to some degree, you could be right there.
I start with the recycling question well before I eve look at putting paper and card into the recycling bin.
The first question I ask myself with regards to paper and card is as to whether I cannot use the stuff myself in one way or the other.
I cut up a lot of card material to 3x5 index cards, for business- and calling card blanks where a stamp is then used for printing the details upon the cards, and for other things.
The small offcuts, if they cannot be recycled or composted, which is the same in this case, are not much waste that goes into the trash then.
Paper that cannot be reused for notebooks – I make my own notebooks out of pages that are only printed on one side, and that includes letter that are no longer required – gets shredded and is then used first as bedding for the chickens and afterwards goes into the composting bin where it gets turned into, well, compost.
Any important information gets destroyed in that process as well, and rather permanently.
Cardboard shipping boxes, on the other hand, generally can be recycled quite easily but better would be still if they could be collected from us to be reused as, well, shipping boxes.
There are some services around that do just that and cardboard boxes are used again and again until such a time that they are no longer serviceable. Good ideas, methinks. And we need more services like that.
In the main, when it comes to anything paper and card I look first of all at how I can make use of it and making my own notebooks, for instance, save me couple of bucks every time. Same goes for the making of my green business cards and index cards. Just a few ideas and ways to starve the recycling bin and trash can.
Please remember, not all that appears to be paper and is paper can actually be recycled.
© 2010
