Paper
Paper with food can’t be recycled.
In fact, the food is unlikely to cause any issue in the process as long as it is minimal. A few crumbs, a potato chip or O in a box? Not an issue. Don’t recycle a whole sandwich though.!

The reason for this long standing myth is quite obvious. Paper sorting facilitates are huge. Paper sits in open wall piles for weeks, or months. Food rots. Animals come in and add more organics to the pile.

Papers with grease can’t be recycled
This is less myth and more locational. Older pulping processes use a single screening method. Newer systems use a series of screens. Grease floats. If it doesn’t get removed by a single screen with inks and plastics, it can ruin the process. It’s best to find the age of the equipment. Or alternatively the process used. You can ask, but they will likely tell you no grease because of the first myth. They don’t want or need tons of melted cheese and sausage in their boxes.

Toilet paper can not be recycled
Toilet paper, Paper towels, and other thin short fibre paper is easily recycled into multiple products. Sorted,It is used for everything from pulp board to fibre fill for paper shipping envelopes.
In reality it will probably join many other skimmed off waste as compacted fuel pellets. It’s still worthwhile though.
Blood is morally questionable. But not a real threat in the process. Put your, soiled, tp in the toilet though.
Composting is the best option for this paper.
Otherwise, the bin works well. So recycle it. Even if it is turned into fuel, it’s still much greener than landfilling.

Shredded paper is recyclable curb side
Maybe. Strip cut paper is recyclable curb side everywhere. Half strip, confetti, and diamond cut is usually not. Single sort streamline will filter out these smaller cuts. It makes for great compost, especially if you removed all the plastic and clay first. That means not mixing in envelopes or glossy paper for compost. You can also usually find a paper collection drop off in most city areas that will take in shredded paper at no cost.
Or shred on site. For a small fee or often for free

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Plastic
Plastics are recycled by number
Let’s knock out a few more myths here all at once.

Only certain plastics can be recycled.
Biodegradable plastics contaminate the system.
All accepted plastic is recycled.
Leave bottle caps on.
Take bottle caps off.

Reality check time. Your curb side pickup is {probably} a multinational that doesn’t really care about the earth. They care about stockholders and income.
Just because they take HDPE doesn’t mean they will recycle the form fit liner that came with your new mouse or keyboard or tablet. Dyes like reds, greens and BLACKS tend to be missed by the sorting process.
Today more than 80% of plastic sorting is automated by optical scan machines. These scanners miss the dark reds and greens most of the time. And blacks are rarely sorted by automation.
The good news is on two fronts. Today many plastic sorters do a manual sort at the end of the “no” line. Pulling red and green (HDPE and ldpe), and black (hdpe, ldpe, pet, ps, pp, pvc, abs). The rising value of ABS and greatly expanding use of this highly stable and highly recyclable plastic can has made manual sorting a real option. A single ABS computer case lid or tablet back can be worth more than a dozen gallon milk jugs. Abs and PP are highly sought for electronics and industrial use.
Both are expensive to make the first time but cheap to recycle. This imbalance has made collection a reality.

Multiple manufacturers in the US, UK, and Europe are testing a black plastic additive that allowed them to be detected by the same scanning method as other colours. How2recycle has some good papers on this process. Already we see this in plastic flatware and PP food trays.
In reality bulk recyclers only recycle a small amount of what they take in in the US. Much of it is burned or landfilled. Automation has reduced the common sense of the process. The problem is the single sort filtering process. The same thing that removes leaves and rocks and broken glass also removes loose bottle caps. So tonnage is lost before it ever makes it to the plastic sort line. Automation generally will kick capped bottles to one line and uncapped to another. If it’s under a gallon, leave the cap on. If it’s over a gallon, remove it. Larger caps survive the screening and are still picked up by automation.
If you really want to be sure your material is recycled, try the iRecycle app. Find local plastics drop offs. Some even pay you

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Glass
All glass is curb side recyclable.
Nope. Thin glass like wine glasses are guaranteed to break into tiny shards that never make it past the filter.
Heavy glass like beer mugs and windows don’t break evenly in the crusher and disrupt the melting process of bottles. Many often contain plastics as well. Plex and lucite aren’t actually glass.
Light bulbs are not single stream options. Lead is regulated.
The good news is there are many options for drop off. And many options to be paid. Look up your local options

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Ceramic can’t be recycled.
Your dishes and bowls and coffee mugs are wanted. Find a production quarry and call them. Good chance they’ll let you dump them there. Where they get ground up with other materials and added to new construction project.
Ceramics are also found in electronics too. Magnetic Ferrite and related carbon em chokes, found wrapped in wires, can be recycled with normal steel.
Other ceramics like capacitors have expensive PM (precious metals) in them. If you have them loose look for buyers.
Ceramics are elsewhere inside as well. Some AIO computers use a ceramic stand base inside the plastic or metal. Ceramics are often found in old banana house phone handsets. As well as lead, iron, and silver weights.
(Old pre breakup phones from the telephone companies often had a silver alloy weight in the handset. The purity ranges from less than 10% silver to over 50%. Keep an eye out for these, even if selling the blocks is difficult). Remember collectors want the phones if in good condition though.
Most older light sockets (and the base) are ceramic. As are tube sockets. Ceramic switches can be found well into the 90s. All easily recycled into new construction

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Wood.
It is safe to burn wood from older electronics.
No.
Well, the answer is actually sometimes, but I’m not responsible if you murder your whole town burning Chem-wood.
Actual wood is safe to burn. Or chip for mulch. Many towns, from big cities to farms, will take your wood for free. It’s organic, obviously, so feel free to toss it as a last resort.
The issue comes from mixed woods. This is stuff like pressboard, powderboard, chipboard, etc. where the problem is not the wood but the glue. Some use an organic glue made from animal fat. Others use chemical glue. There’s also the crazy 70s where fire retardants were added. Fine in reducing fire. Deadly if they actually do catch.
The other older type of “wood” you will find in larger electronics is sandboard. Yep, sand. This didn’t last too long. The highly compressed sand was coated in a plastic or glue layer. Worked fine until someone dropped it or dropped something on it. FYI, nobody wants it. Toss it.

Miss anything you want to talk about? Ask below. If I don’t know, I’ll tell you and look into it.

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We have Chat GPT for this kind of thing now lol

this is a great post

Thanks.
I intend to revisit this shortly. The initial posts were a cut down version of an open I wrote in the end of 2022.
Things have changes slightly overall and substantially in some categories.

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A note about contaminated paper. Even in my area they will take the plastic coated paper cartons used for milk, soup, etc. and have lightened up on pizza boxes. They won't take even bagged shredded paper though.
For milk jugs, I usually take the cap off and pop it inside the jug.
For the plastic cases I put a large mark on them with the type and drop a few at a time at the regular recycling drop off. They have a higher chance of getting it recycled than I do. Or, after gutting something like a printer, reassemble the case and bring it to Best Buy.
A grocery chain here is the only place to get rid of plastic bags, plastic overwrap, or egg carton type.
Paper drop off at the local libraries and proceeds go to the library directly.

Plastic bags won’t change. In most countries the seller is responsible for collection. Many bills were Making the rounds here. So they took a page from video games, The biggest consumer stores got together and did it themselves. The platform for plastic bags and film is so deeply entrenched now, it’s unlikely to change

Shredded paper is a problem with no good answer for the masses. Single sort can’t handle it and never will. If long cut it jams equipment. If cross cut or smaller, it slips through the holes in tumbler meant to dump out rocks and button cell batteries, Dirt, food scrap etc. note: that’s why they say put the lids back on the bottles (not in them). Bottles and lids are different plastics. If you put the lid inside the scanning machines will reject the bottle before it gets to the band sort. Take the cap off and it won’t make it on the belt in the first place.
The current solution to shredded paper is to find a shredding company and make a drop off. Onsite, or eventually, the paper is dumped slowly into a steam bailer. The damp paper is compacted with extreme pressure, then bound with jute, bamboo, or other thick fibre material. These blocks are later sliced thick for repulping to make those “fuzzy” paper layers in safety ship boxes. It’s also used in pulp envelopes (rip one open and you’ll see small shreds of off-colour paper) and biodegradable paper form-fit sprays.

Wax and plastic coated paper issues are going away slowly. Right now many companies will take carton boxes but most of it doesn’t get recycled. Those that do though also take drink cups now. And other coated paper (frozen food boxes, oven trays).
Science. The same enzymes that hundreds of beetles use to break down plastic as food has been recreated in labs. Adding just a small amount to a pulping tank helps the plastic turn into an oil-like film.
The film easily collected as refuel.
Some high altitude locations such as in Colorado, Utah, and Alaska, have localised trials for industrial equipment fuel (below 86oct). It’s not green, but it’s greener.

As nearly half the country ignores climate change and the other expects the world to end tomorrow…
It’s good to see a middle group working on cleaning and sustaining life today.

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