Caroline Bluestone's Profile

30% of glass containers in the supermarket are recyclable, but not even half of these containers are recycled by consumer.

Recycling old glass uses 40% less energy than manufacturing it from new.

When glass is produced, soda ash, lime and sand are heated together and shaped into glass products. This creates huge fossil fuel emissio

light bulbs, dishes and window glass can not be recycled.

main glass recyclable

products are:

Always sort your glass products by color.

look for the “G” logo on the product, which means that the product is made from recycled glass and can be recycled again.

faces

one huge
problem

plastic types must not be mixed for recycling, yet it is impossible to
tell one type from another by sight or touch

Even a small amount of the wrong
type of plastic can ruin the melt.

Types 1 and 2 are widely accepted in container form,
and type 4 is sometimes accepted in bag form

Code 7 is for mixed or layered plastic
with little recycling potential

bin only those
types of plastic listed

You should place in your

your local recycling agency!

Recycling #5 Open Top Containers (Yogurt, Cottage Cheese, Strawberry Baskets)

the #5 cups have been the bane of the good home recycler. The cups
are hard to avoid buying, and mostly useless for recycling. Many curbside collection
programs won't complain if these are placed in a bin, but they won't recycle them either.

Other plastic Containers (milk, soap, juice, fresh pasta, water, etc.)

recycling code (C).

Caps should be separately marked, but
few are
(B).
Note that most caps are
NOT of the same type as the bottle they sit on.

Ideally the
entire container should be made of the same plastic to avoid confusion, but
often the caps are of a different type

Grocery sacks, produce bags, and other packaging

These are great to reuse.

plastic types 2 or 4. T

Other Plastic Items

This includes toys, plastic hangars,
trash cans, shelves, baskets, rain ponchos, and many other products
(B).

Any product made of a single plastic type should be marked

Glass bottles must not be mixed with
other types of glass such as windows, light bulbs, mirrors, glass tableware,
Pyrex or auto glass

Ceramics contaminate glass and are difficult to sort out.
Clear glass is the most valuable. Mixed color glass is near worthless, and
broken glass is hard to sort.

Most types of paper can be recycled. Newspapers have been recycled
profitably for decades, and recycling of other paper is
growing.

50% recycled paper,
35% post-consumer.
Soy-based inks.

the more "post-consumer"
paper the better

"Post-consumer" means the paper that you and I return to
recycling centers

Soybean-based inks are gaining favor as a renewable
alternative to harsh and toxic petrochemical inks.

One of the highest grades of paper is white office paper.

Colored,
contaminated, or lower grade paper is not acceptable

Staples are OK

Contaminated cardboard,
like greasy pizza boxes, is not acceptable.

nd of uniform consistency, which makes it
valuable.

except for things
like plastic, product samples and rubber bands.

Some phone books are made with a special glue that breaks down in water,
while other phone books use a glue that interferes with recycling.

Milk cartons are plastic laminated inside, even if they don't have a plastic
spout

Everything you can imagine from magazines to packaging is acceptable

, most plastic, wax, and
other contamination.

The paper must still be clean, dry, and free of food

Paper that can't be recycled as normal "mixed paper" includes:
food contaminated paper, waxed paper, waxed cardboard milk & juice
containers, oil soaked paper, carbon paper, sanitary products or tissues,
thermal fax paper, stickers and plastic laminated paper such as fast food
wrappers, juice boxes, and pet food bags.