A Van Dyk Consumer Tip
In most areas of the United States, you can recycle the items listed below. Rules for some recyclable items may vary from one municipality to another, so check your town’s or county’s website for details specific to your location.
Recyclable Items
You can place the following in your household’s recycling bin. These recyclable items are usually transported to a materials recovery facility where they are sorted and processed into recycled materials:
- Cardboard
- Cardboard, corrugated cardboard, milk and juice cartons, pizza and takeout food boxes (without food or food residue in them).
- Mixed paper
- Office paper, newspapers and inserts, magazines, mail, catalogs, envelopes (with and without plastic windows).
- Metals
- Ferrous, such as tin coated cans.
- Non-ferrous, such as aluminum cans.
- Plastics
- Plastic containers with #s 1 or 2 stamped on them are accepted almost everywhere. Your municipality may accept additional types of plastics.
- Glass
- Bottles and jars only. Most recycling facilities don’t accept broken glass, ceramics (such as dinner pates), window glass, mirrors or heat-resistant glass (like Pyrex®)
The following items should never go into your household recycling bin. Check within your community for specific drop-off locations or dates for these items to be collected and processed by specialty facilities:
- Any kind of plastic film, such as plastic bags, grocery bags, bubble wrap, etc.
- Food scraps
- Batteries
- Light bulbs (LED, halogen, filament, fluorescent, etc.)
- Paint
- Electronic items
- Hazardous materials