Can this be Recycled? by Jacob Powell

Can this be Recycled? A simple question that comes up anytime someone must throw an item away. Although its a simple question, it has great significance when it comes to keeping are planet free of excessive waste and pollutants. So what really can you recycle? Well lets start with some simple rules.

When it comes to food containers, the majority of them cannot be recycled due to one issue: food grease and residue. Recycled items don’t have to be pristinely clean, but food residue can render recycled materials less valuable. More than metal or plastic, paper absorbs oil and residue from food, so it’s harder to get out. Beyond pizza boxes, paper napkins, plates, and towels are all non-recyclable for this reason. So before you recycle a food container, double check for large food remains or significant grease stains before recycling.

Image result for pizza box
Secondly, most juice boxes and milk cartons aren't recyclable. These containers are mostly paper, but they have an ultra-thin plastic coating low-density polyethylene or LPDE (a #4 plastic). Some juice boxes also include an aluminum foil lining. Though these items are individually recyclable, it can be quite hard to separate these linings from the carton, hence why many curbside recycling programs don’t accept juice boxes.

Image result for juice carton
At this point you may be thinking: what's the point of even trying to recycle if mostly everything either can't be recycled or just get's rejected? This a problem facing the whole globe. Recycling is an incredibly strenuous process and takes lots of precision and care. A solution must be found to make recycling more inclusive and accessible. Some cities, such as Houston, are proposing an all-in-one plan. The idea is to put trash, recycling, and compost in one bin and then the bin would be sorted by a machine on site of a landfill or recycling plant. This is an issue that may require a time sacrifice in order to recycle more items, but I feel that it is worth it. For now here is a chart to help know what can be recycled in Texas.
 Image result for what can be recycled texas
What do you feel should be more recyclable?
What measures can be taken to make the recycling process more efficient
What effects could recycling have on the world?

https://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=https%3A%2F%2Fpreviews.123rf.com%2Fimages%2Fspeedo101%2Fspeedo1011002%2Fspeedo101100200024%2F6467573-a-carton-of-delicious-orange-juice-on-a-white-background.jpg&imgrefurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.123rf.com%2Fphoto_6467573_a-carton-of-delicious-orange-juice-on-a-white-background.html&docid=hRnKtloWs_WnTM&tbnid=zfbiKdnHj0N4WM%3A&vet=10ahUKEwixkpmWq7XhAhVGooMKHXKFBjoQMwhoKAAwAA..i&w=866&h=1300&bih=969&biw=1920&q=juice%20carton&ved=0ahUKEwixkpmWq7XhAhVGooMKHXKFBjoQMwhoKAAwAA&iact=mrc&uact=8

Comments

Anonymous said…
I really like what you decided to talk about, because this is something that we talk about daily in my house. I think that manufacturers should say whether or not the packaging is recyclable on the package so that way there is no confusion (the whole number system confuses things for me). I think that, even though there are many restrictions, recycling is still worth it because at the end of the day it's a baby step to a bigger goal of environmental consciousness. I also think that it is important to address that there is more than one way to "reuse" materials other than recycling. Composting your food scraps helps enrich the soil, which will in turn make more food, which will be composted (essentially, a positive feedback loop).
April 3, 2019 at 8:09 PM
Anonymous said…
Recycling is an important task that everyone should participate in. However, many people either recycle too much or don't recycle at all. It is hard to find the right balance of what should and should not be recycled. We need to spread more knowledge about the specifics of recycling so that more people are aware of what exactly they should be doing.
April 3, 2019 at 8:43 PM
Anonymous said…
Recycling is a vital process in order to allow for demanded materials to be available through re use, to ensure that the inputs of those materials such as trees to make paper are not declining rapidly in order to manufacture more of that material for human use, and to significantly decrease the amount of solid waste placed inside of landfills. Thus, ensuring that only the proper recycling methods are utilized is vital. I think that there should be increased education regarding what can and cannot be recycled in order to provide awareness that all materials cannot just be recycled. For example, before Ms. Westbrook mentioned it in class, Idid not realize their straws could not be recycled due to their potential harm in entangling in the recycling machinery and causing the whole recycling operation to be halted, which wastes time and money. Furthermore, I did not realize that most plastic containers with food residue could not be recycled since they hold the potential for contamination. An all in one recycling program could be effective in ensuring only those items that are recyclable are recycled and also to be able to separate items that could be used in compost rather than wasting away in a solid waste landfill, but this method would also require an increased investment of time to separate out the trash, compost, and recyclable materials, which could result in a loss of efficiency, as well as more money as more machinery needs to probably be bought and more people need to be hired.
April 4, 2019 at 5:50 AM
Anonymous said…
It’s strange how society urges young children to “save the world” and recycle, but many of the same children aren’t really taught how to recycle or how recycling really works. This post emphasized how little I actually understand about recycling and what is recyclable. For instance, I never knew that juice boxes were commonly rejected by recycling plants. The veil that covers the inner workings of recycling also hampers progress made in preserving the world. If Americans don’t recognize the problems recycling plants face, they will continue to throw juice boxes into blue bins and pat themselves on the back. America needs to be further educated on what recycling is and how to do it effectively. Only then can we move on from ignorance.
April 4, 2019 at 1:47 PM
Anonymous said…
Since elementary school, we have all been taught the “three R’s” of sustainability: reduce, reuse, and recycle. We are all aware that we should reduce our consumption of certain resources, like paper and water, and try to repurpose whatever we can manage. However, no one is given a strict set of guidelines to recycle by. Most people probably make a conscious effort to recycle, but these efforts are in vain due to misinformation about what actually can be recycled. For the most part, I don’t think regular people are fully at fault. I also think that companies that create the consumed goods play a part in the recycling process, too. Moving forward, I think corporations should take into consideration what can and cannot be recycled (especially in cases that’s combine materials like the juice box) and start to create packaging that is more easily compostable or recyclable.
April 4, 2019 at 2:54 PM
Anonymous said…
I think one important way in which we can make recycling more beneficial is to educate people on what can and cannot be recycled. While this may be hard to do with adults it can be easy to teach future generations. Something as simple as an advisory class can be used to teach students how to properly recycle. I think this will make a big difference because people are often to lazy to do the research themselves (I know I am) and as a result will choose to throw everything away in the trash. However, if they know what they do recycling won’t be a problem at all. Furthermore, we should consider expanding from just trash and recycling bins to compost bins too. Not only can a person use this for their own needs if they don’t need it, it can be taken somewhere it can be put to use and not just wasted.
April 4, 2019 at 5:59 PM
Anonymous said…
Although recycling is a common part of society, the process behind recycling is largely undiscussed. Therefore, it is important to increase public education about recycling. For starters, public service announcements would be an excellent way to increased public education. I believe that updating public school's curriculums about recycling would also be an excellent way to spread the message. By increasing education, we can all recycle in a sustainable way.
April 4, 2019 at 6:51 PM
Anonymous said…
Prior to reading this article, I had no idea that recycling could be such a difficult task. I realized that some of the things I thought were recyclable, such as milk cartons, are not. Even though the process itself may be challenging, it is important to the world, and education about the topic should be addressed because people lack the vast knowledge about recycling. I feel like the most effective way to increase the amount of recycling is through teaching others. Theses type of classes should be an required elective, but the class should be interesting so that people would not slack off and lose focus.
April 4, 2019 at 6:59 PM
Anonymous said…
We've always been taught to recycle since we were young, but we aren't necessarily taught what all can exactly be recycled and what cannot. People mainly focus on paper, plastic, aluminum, glass, and thats it . What we are not told is how to properly clean and sort what all in these categories can actually be recycled. I believe that teaching everyone, especially the next generation, how to properly recycle is crucial to our future waste production.
April 5, 2019 at 8:15 AM
Anonymous said…
I think its extremely weird that recently recycling has been exposed in this way. Ever since I was a kid we were told that the secret to a good environment was recycling. All of a sudden, everything I do is wrong. I would love to have a simplified, streamlined way to recycle and not have my family’s waste be automatically thrown into the landfill due to us not knowing any better. The recycling industry needs someone jammin to become more useful in our society...
April 5, 2019 at 1:28 PM
Anonymous said…
Since we were kids, we have heard people say: reuse, reduce, and recycle. However, a huge problem today is we don’t habe the knowledge of what to recycle and how to properly recycle ithem. Without this education, it’s hard to make recycling efficient and it ends up being almost useless. It is very important to educate students on what they can and can’t recycle and how they should recycle things. I believe the most beneficial solution to this issue is to educate students on recycling and actually make recycling a useless thing in our world.
April 7, 2019 at 8:23 PM
Anonymous said…
Knowing what you can recycle and how you should recycle them, the recycling process becomes longer and more tedious as they now have to sort through more and more garbage. Until recently I had been recycling most things that were made of plastic, but now I realize that in some cases it is better for us to throw away the trash rather than recycle it. In order to make the process more effiecient people shouldn’t just be taught that recycling is better, but they should also be taught what you can recycle, how to recycle it, when to recycle it band where to recycle it.
April 8, 2019 at 10:19 AM
Anonymous said…
Recycling now plays a huge part in the society. It has been drilled into our brains that we should start saving the earth by reusing products. People have been raising so much awareness about this subject that everyone has started to think twice about their paper, bottles, etc. The only downside to this is that people have not been thinking extensively about HOW or WHAT to recycle. It is really common to just think that every plastic or paper is recyclable but recently I have learned that, that is not the case. There is a specific regulation on what can be put into the blue bins with the recycle label. I believe that in order to be more efficient, we need to increase the education on this topic and not just the prospect of recycling to save the earth. We need to recycle the RIGHT way.
April 8, 2019 at 1:10 PM
Lauren Pan said…
Personally, I have a hard time remembering which materials are recyclable and which are not. I think the public should be more educated not just on what can be recycled but also how to help the go green efforts and make it more effective and efficient. Children can learn to recycle at an early age. And once they’ve established the habit, they may recycle for the rest of their lives. Additionally, kids have a natural enthusiasm that can spread to their parents, friends, and relatives. We can simply reach out to your schools’ teachers and principals for approval, advice, and planning tips. In addition, I feel the government should help incentivize us to recycle. Although in all honesty, I guess the fact that recycling helps our beloved plant should be incentive enough. Also to make recycling more efficient we can set a good example. Recycling is contagious. The more your colleagues, tenants or employees see you recycle, the more they will realize that their building/peers take sustainability seriously, and will follow.
April 8, 2019 at 2:54 PM
Anonymous said…
Recycling is very important cause like uhh trash is very bad for the environment. Recycling helps us reuse the materials which take very long to disintegrate back into nature. Becuase we also need there minerals it is a win- win. I personally try to recycle the best i can.
April 8, 2019 at 3:44 PM
Anonymous said…
My parents have always told me to recycle sine I was a kid. Recycling is a huge part of conserving the environment today, but many people don’t know what truly is recycleable. People raise awareness for recycling but never really say what can be recycled. People need to be more educated about what belongs in the trash vs. recycling bin. Personally, I try to recycle as much as I can.
April 9, 2019 at 10:10 AM
Anonymous said…
I know that there have been numerous companies implementing fully recyclable cartons that can be fully recycled, as long as whoever is recycling the carton cleans the carton from its contents. The problem with making these cartons is they are more expensive to manufacture, which makes them less attractive to companies, and things that spoil, such as milk, are much harder to clean from their respective carton if they do go bad. I also believe that what can be recycled and what cant be recycled should be taught to every American because I had no idea some of the things I had been recycling were not supposed to be recycled.
-Adam Ghanem
April 9, 2019 at 4:11 PM
Anonymous said…
I’ve always been told to recycle any paper or plastic I had my hands on. I typically blindly followed what I was told, without realizing that many of the objects I tried to recycle weren’t indeed recyclable, be it food containers, or minsicule scraps of construction paper. I believe that the companies that are working to create fully recyclable cartons and food boxes are on the right track. Although trying to make containers more recyclable may be more costly right now, in the long run, the economic and environmental benefits of recycling will outweigh this cost by a large margin.
April 9, 2019 at 5:22 PM
Anonymous said…
Thinking back on the day when Ms. Westbrook asked the class what is and isn't recyclable, I realized how people can often be negligent when it comes to recycling. However, this simple process has huge impacts on several aspects. Recycling is very important as it combats effects of waste and the negative impact on the natural environment. Harmful chemicals and greenhouse gasses are released from rubbish in landfill sites. Recycling helps to reduce the pollution caused by waste, so I think we should be more cautious and aware of what we put into the recycling bin next time.
April 9, 2019 at 5:23 PM
Anonymous said…
The recycling process can really at times be confusing causing more harm then benefit when we long at the long term impacts. The greatest reason for this is because humans will go and do only what is easiest for them to do. I feel like efficiency is the largest factor for humans when it comes to any decision. We see that this explains pollution and weak recycling practices.
April 9, 2019 at 9:10 PM
Anonymous said…
Recycling is an important step in helping our environment. While the process can be time consuming at times or confusing, it is necessary to take that time so we can conserve the environment. Recycling has huge impacts on local and global scales. I have always tried to play my role in recycling and contributing to it to combat pollution and harmful chemicals caused by waste.
April 10, 2019 at 8:36 AM
Anonymous said…
Recycling is crucial to the health of our enviroment. Even though it seems like a pain to many people, recycling is a sacrifice we need to make so we can sustain and help our enviroment. Recycling helps reduce the waste that could be reused instead of being thrown in a land fill. If materials such as plastics are in the landfills, then it could emit greenhouse gases that can hurt the enviroment.
April 10, 2019 at 10:44 AM
Anonymous said…
This post and the talk Mrs. Westbrook gave to us has been a truly enlightening experience as well as a great refresher. Growing up, I always thought I knew what could be recycled and not recycled; however, as of recent, I have learned that I really do not. I believe that there are many people in the world who were just like me: those who think they know what they need to recycle. We should aim to educate the world more in depth to teach everyone and to initiate mass environmental change.
April 10, 2019 at 12:41 PM
Anonymous said…
Ever since Mrs. Westbrook taught us some of the false assumptions of recycling, I’ve been doing my best to be more mindful of what I’m recycling because I think it’s an important aspect of doing our part for the environment. My family does our best to recycle, and I’ve relayed to them some of these recycling “do’s and dont’s” so that they know as well. I think a lot of these recycling exemptions need to be more well known so that we aren’t hindering the process.
April 10, 2019 at 3:59 PM
Jibran Khalil said…
The topic you chose is extremely relevant to our classroom, as every day we see people recycling food wrappers, contaminated papers, or other inappropriate items. I think a lot of people mistakenly assume what can be recycled, and, as a result, the purpose of recycling is often negated. However, through blogs such as your own and education through teachers like Mrs. Westbrook, serious change can be made. Americans and citizens of different countries in general need to be more aware of what constitutes a recyclable item, which will lead to a massive reduction in waste overall.
April 10, 2019 at 8:17 PM
Anonymous said…
It really is crazy to think about how the majority of people have been recycling the wrong way even if it was with good intentions. I think this just shows how demanding and difficult it is to keep the earth healthy and better alternatives need to be made. This is a shock to me as many of the things listed in this article that were labeled unrecyclable are things that I regularly put into the recycling bin. Recyclable and non recyclable items must become more clearer and more awareness needs to be taught to the public
April 10, 2019 at 8:25 PM
Anonymous said…
I’ve been increasingly cautious of what to recycle ever since Ms. Dixie gave her lecture on what we should and shouldn’t recycle. I think companies should label how to properly recycle their items. For example, a glass drink container should say something along the lines of the rinse the container and let it dry before recycling. I think more people need to be conscience of what can be recycled in order to create a more efficient recycling program.
April 11, 2019 at 9:17 PM
Anonymous said…
I think it is interesting that you bring this up because these days one of the most discussed topics in the world is that of recycling and yet there are few who know how to do it correctly. This post shows that it is not merely separating plastic and paper from other trash but that there are several other important aspects to it regarding all the components present in trash that we dispose off daily. I think the idea of a machine that does this, although time taking, is an excellent solution so that recycling can be done with as much trash as possible. Providing instructions on how to recycle can also be a good way of ensuring that more trash is recycled.
April 15, 2019 at 9:57 AM
Abby Jung said…
I like how our class recycling tzar chose to write about recycling! I think this is a very important but neglected topic of our day. Lots of celebrities and poster child figures praise themselves for recycling, but are they really doing it the right way? Is is even worth doing even if you're not doing it correctly? This blogpost really sets clear cut guidelines as to how to recycle properly. It is not just an argument of separating plastics from other garbage. It is really looking at the depths of each product and educating yourself about what you can and cannot recycle.
April 24, 2019 at 11:36 AM
Abby Jung said…
^ the unknown is abby jung
April 24, 2019 at 11:37 AM
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