Recycling
To fix the problem “the facility then needs to shut down all the equipment so they can get in and cut out all the junk,” said Peter Spendelow, a materials management specialist for Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality.
Christmas cards
You need to sort them. Plain paper Christmas cards can go straight into the paper recycling bin. But the shiny Christmas cards printed on photo paper need to go into the trash.
It’s the same with ones that have lots of metallic embossing, though usually you can tear the card in half and at least recycle the paper portion, Recology’s Reed says.
Cards that have a lot of glitter on them should also stay out of recycling. “You can’t recycle glitter,” he said.
Break it down
Online purchases now make up 9.1% of all U.S. retail sales, according to the Department of Commerce. All those sales mean more individual boxes being shipped to customers’ homes — and in turn more boxes that need recycling.
Cardboard is a great material to recycle because it’s clean, easy to reprocess and every ton of it that’s reclaimed saves 17 trees, Reed said .
The most important thing when recycling boxes is simply to break them down flat. Otherwise they take up so much room in the recycling trucks that they have to make extra trips, requiring more energy and eating up all the net good recycling would have done in the first place.
Packages closed with paper tape don’t require anything more than flattening. Boxes with a single strip of plastic tape are OK, too. If you get one with a lot of heavy-duty, wide plastic tape, it’s worth taking a moment to peel one end up so you can pull the whole strip tape off.
“The strong adhesive in some tapes can create a problem at the paper mill,” said Reed.
But don’t feel like you’ve got to remove every single bit of plastic tape and only throw pristine cardboard into the bin, he said. “The recycling process will take care of it.”
As you engage in the satisfying task of breaking down boxes, ponder that everything you’re tossing in the recycle bin will most likely come back to you next year.
Many of the items we order online are made in China, Reed notes. Those items come in cardboard boxes. The boxes are made in China.
And what are they made from? You guessed it — recycled paper from the United States.