What are some things that absolutely should NOT be recycled?
What are some things that absolutely should NOT be recycled?
I'll start.. toilet paper, tampons, and QTips...
Fascism
Didn't you usually have to grind the source material into dust completely destroying it to remake it into something better?
That's only half the story they told you. After you dice, grind and melt the original material. You have to use some virgin materials as binder to get all that stuff together. The amount of virgin materials can sometimes surpass even the amount of old stuff and render the whole recycling process moot for those nasty material. That's why you should have better just burn them all in a furnace or just bury them back in the ground where they belong.
Even then it's a little dicey.
Everything that can be composted.
Isn't composting a form of recycling?
Reduce, reuse, recycle, and let's add compost.
I'm all for it when possible, I agree. 👍
Why is that?
If I have the choice between composting or recycling paper, would it not be better to recycle than compost?
Pretty sure you’re right - there’s the concern of the resources / energy needed for recycling but also, recycling decreases the need for new materials enough to offset that.
That said, AFAIK paper and cardboard are the only thing that can be both composted and recycled, so the advice of the person you replied to is still generally good.
This is the guidance I’ve seen on the topic:
Recycle:
- clean, dry paper
- clean, dry cardboard
But compost:
- soiled and wet paper/cardboard
- pizza boxes and other similar things
- paper towels
- paper/cardboard egg cartons
Don’t compost (throw away if unsuitable to recycle):
- glossy paper
- paper with plastic attached
- anything (e.g., paper towels) with cleaning chemicals or other substances unsuitable for composting on it
Things that can be composted are usually food waste or food spoiled papers not treated with chemicals. Paper is hard to recycle because it can only recycled into lower quality paper, frequently gets contaminated, and it's hard to seperate out from everything else.
Thus if something is compostable I believe it's better to compost than to recycle that same material.
Anything that can be reused. Containers and packaging material should have a significant return deposits.
Okay, fair enough. Not exactly where I was going with the question LOL, but legit answer regardless. 👍
My mother in law's stories. She keeps repeating these stories over and over but we've all heard them a dozen times before and then when we say, "oh, we've heard this one" she takes it as encouragement to keep going
My grandmother is like this. Then occasionally she tells some new story and we are all like, this is way more interesting why hasn't this been part of your repertoire for the past decade?
I totally get you. I've been told many times that I should stop repeating the same old stories.
Like WTF, those are my experiences in life, what am I supposed to do, make up another false one for shits and giggles?
My response.. "If I'm all out of stories I haven't already said, then let's go make a new one. What's the adventure today?"
That's right OP, the correct order is to reduce, reuse, and then recycle.
If you feel you can reduce use, or reuse any of the things listed. Please try that first!
Condoms
Where there's money to be made, there's a way...
https://youtube.com/watch?v=WIVkYt_NNjk
And yes, humanity disappoints me at times ☹️
Well, there's that. Only thing I can think is that should you need to use them, know the source of your procurement.
Food !
Human Centipede begs to differ.
I see we need to have the talk...
💩
Things that can't be recycled.
Let's state the obvious why don't we?
I mean hell, if we can refine dirt into raw chemicals, then theoretically we should be able to refine our trash into raw chemicals, and start the whole process over again.
I mean fuck, when you break it all down, it's all atoms and molecules right?
What makes used toilet paper any different than the carbon based molecules it's made of?
Also, Poo Paper actually exists...
MDF pallets, according to our pallet recycling guy. Apparently normal pallets get fed into an enormous shredder and turned into garden mulch, but the glue holding the layers of MDF together gums up the works.
I'm not exactly a palette expert (I'm guessing many other readers aren't either), but what's the difference, and how can we average fools tell them apart?
Pizza boxes or anything that is dirty, but would otherwise be recyclable
Pizza boxes can be a bit more tricky to recycle, but contrary to popular belief, they actually can be recycled.
I just learned this today actually...
Pizza boxes are usually good if there is that paper liner under the pie. Toss the paper though.
Usually there is cheese and other food on it. I've never seen one that can be recycled.
Piza boxes are a great way to contaminate other perfectly good cardboard. I wish municipal composting was more common.
Depends where you live, but in my area pizza boxes go with the cardboard.
Plastics.
It's fucked that the plastic symbol being in the public domain was cooped when plastics were required to be labled
But plastics like PET are recyclable?
Plastic is awful for recycling between cleaning and sorting. We spend a ton of resources to effectively recycle at best half the plastic that makes it to the facility.
Paper coffee cups.
Composting is controversial too. There is an Australian standard but I don't know what it says about the PFAS.
If I'm not mistaken, I believe the reason those shouldn't be recycled or composted is due to the wax lining inside to make it water tight.
If I am mistaken, anyone please let me know.
Lots of types of plastic. Sure you might be able to hand them off to someone else, but there's no guarantee they are not just headed for a landfill.
It saddens me that many types of plastic cannot be recycled in any economic or environmentally friendly manner. ☹️
Like hell, they told us that plastic in general should last like 400 years. Well phuck, I'm only 42 years old and my fucking hairbrush is already obviously degrading.
pissy TP and paper-core cotton Q-tios can be composted, FYI
And Poo Paper actually exists...
Cigarette butts
I've cleaned my weed pipe using a couple used cigarette butts and rubbing alcohol, but yeah generally speaking they don't have much of any other valid use.
Desperate times hahaa