Surprise! These 15 Common Grocery Store Items Are Almost Never Recyclable
So think twice before chucking them in the blue bin.
By Luke Whelan
Mother Jones, Monday, December 7, 2015 6:00 AM EST
http://www.motherjones.com/print/290201
The trash from our meals is piling up. For starters, supermarket goods are
hitting the shelves in increasingly [1] elaborate [2] packaging--think soup
pouches [3], snack packs [4], and squeeze tubes [5]. Meanwhile, booming
on-demand food delivery [6] services leave behind an ever-growing trail of
containers and plastic debris.
The good news is that more and more cities and towns, from Boise, Idaho [7]
to Atlanta, Georgia [8], offer curbside recycling pickup--but the
proliferation of packaging has made it more confusing than ever to determine
what you should actually put in the blue bin.
So which containers and wrappers should you throw straight in the trash? The
answer depends largely on where you live, but some kinds of packages more
than likely will go straight from the blue bin into the landfill. Yes, many
of these items are theoretically recyclable, but with the exception of a
handful of cities with very sophisticated recycling centers (San Francisco,
for example) the vast majority of municipalities can't process most of them
[9]. According to the recycling experts I talked to, if you want to reduce
your waste, your best bet is to avoid buying these items in the first place
if you can--or at the very least check if [10] your local facility accepts
them before attempting to recycle them.
1. Mesh bags for citrus fruits.
2. Plastic "clam shell" containers for take-out and produce.
3. "Tetra Pak" containers. Not even San Francisco's famously excellent
recycling facility accepts these.
4. Plastic TV dinner trays.
5. Cereal box liners.
6. Bags for salads and mixed greens.
7. Plastic packaging for fresh fruits and vegetables.
8. Keurig coffee cartridges. And how! Mother Jones' Maddie Oatman has the
full story here [18].
9. Unattached bottle caps. That's right! On their own, bottle caps are hard
to bale and clog up sorters. But when attached their bottle [20], they're
easier for machines to process.
10. "Compostable" bioplastic cups, plates, and cutlery. Plastics made from
plants are difficult to sort and often contaminate plastic that really is
recyclable.
11. Boxes made of different materials, like those with see-through plastic
windows. For many recyclers, it's difficult to separate the different
materials.
12. Juice boxes and pouches.
13. Chip bags.
14. Coffee cup lids.
15. Straws and plastic mixers.
Of the 33 millions tons of plastic waste that Americans produced in 2013
(nearly half of which came from [28] packaging and containers), 91 percent
ended up in landfill, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency
[29]. And overall, the United States is producing more trash than ever
before: The average American generates 60 percent more garbage than he or
she did in 1960, according the EPA. (And a study published this fall [30]
claimed that the EPA has been vastly underestimating the amount of trash
ending up in landfills.)
The average American generates 60 percent more garbage than he or she did in
1960.
Who's to blame for all this garbage? Matt Prindiville, director of Upstream
[31], an organization pushing for policies that make producers take
responsibility for their products' waste, points to producers.
"Right now, any company can make a product, package it any way they want to
and then leave the problem of what to do with that product and its package
to taxpayers, to local governments, and to garbage rate payers," he says.
Without any packaging regulations in sight, I asked the experts what
ordinary consumers can do. In general, take-out, delivery (including
increasingly popular meal delivery services like Blue Apron [32]), and
processed foods come wrapped in lots of hard-to-recycle plastic. Buying in
bulk is a better option, as is choosing unpackaged fresh fruits and veggies.
If you can't avoid containers, aluminum and glass are better than plastic.
Susan Hubbard, founder of St. Paul, Minn.'s Eureka Recycling [33], sums it
up this way: "Whatever people can do to avoid plastic."
Source URL:
http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/11/these-15-grocery-store-items-are-not-recyclable
Links:
[1]
https://michigan.spoonuniversity.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2014/11/DSC_5547.jpg
[2] http://www.brown-machine.com/img/market/thermoformed-food-packaging.jpg
[3]
http://www.amazon.com/Campbells-Go-Golden-14-Ounce-Microwavable/dp/B0096RP8FA
[4] http://www.taylorfarmsdeli.com/uploads/images/trios_b.jpg
[5]
http://www.packagingdigest.com/flexible-packaging/Daisy-adds-flexible-packaging-to-its-sour-cream-line-up1510
[6] http://techcrunch.com/2015/07/11/the-billion-dollar-food-delivery-wars/
[7] http://curbit.cityofboise.org/residential/recycling-collection/
[8] http://www.atlantaga.gov/index.aspx?page=493
[9] http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/article2611349.html
[10] http://search.earth911.com/
[11]
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-75649393/stock-photo-mesh-oranges-from-the-supermarket-isolated-on-white-background.html?src=FmRh_s_gv-Ho58GIf0Js2g-1-9
[12]
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-283598432/stock-photo-red-ripe-strawberry-in-plastic-box-of-packaging-for-sale-isolated-on-white-background.html?src=llG5tV4AfunRfYahdm1O0g-1-56
[13]
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-74044822/stock-photo-carton-illustration-drink-container.html?src=IEgis53ZfK2K3L0OFuxn8w-1-22
[14]
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-33087868/stock-photo-fast-food.html?src=bqXbnOR84v42HSmjYqT6eA-1-13
[15]
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-51215719/stock-photo-muesli.html?src=-WXER4cfn1-0Nv1IHHcLuQ-1-2
[16]
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-24016780/stock-photo--oz-bag-of-raw-spinach-with-blank-label-for-text.html?src=_cG1297qC6alSA889rGLNA-1-2
[17]
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-186551558/stock-photo-image-of-packaged-bell-pepper-with-woman-hand-in-the-supermarket.html?src=O3z7wWdjefYMqY--C_55oA-1-14
[18]
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[19]
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-176982539/stock-photo-atlanta-ga-feb-variety-of-k-cup-flavors-on-a-storage-rack-to-be-used-in-a-keurig.html?src=D-FoLxKevvSB3r8cw6D1uw-1-9
[20]
http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/12/what-actually-happens-to-a-recycled-plastic-bottle/418326/
[21]
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-309712490/stock-photo-plastic-bottle-caps-ready-to-recycling-isolated-on-white.html?src=VyPZEz-nqbNnO4rRB5YaVA-1-17
[22]
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-334204403/stock-photo-empty-plastic-cup-file-contains-clipping-paths.html?src=0SUlAIA7voJ02UYRij_51g-1-12
[23]
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-223665898/stock-photo-alameda-ca-october-three-one-pound-boxes-of-barilla-brand-spaghetti-noodles-an.html?src=VCPFtp4dlYNsIhykbFCsPQ-1-5
[24]
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-246641794/stock-photo-irvine-ca-january-two-pouches-of-capri-sun-wild-cherry-juice-drink-introduced-in.html?src=5yX7kehQ1onMk4wrTtKz_Q-1-12
[25]
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-37222192/stock-photo-bag-of-potato-chips-isolated-on-white-background.html?src=A7pdG5hDnF5fiAkABogqcw-1-7
[26]
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-297468818/stock-photo-white-coffee-lid-isolated-on-white-background.html?src=9Ob9-REG8PN2izfNCMawnQ-1-7
[27]
http://www.shutterstock.com/pic-106906925/stock-photo-drinking-straw-isolated-on-white.html?src=iIYrrzxDIXmBpMOuGI4Q2g-1-2
[28] http://www3.epa.gov/epawaste/wastes_archive/plastics.htm
[29]
http://www2.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2015-09/documents/2013_advncng_smm_fs.pdf
[30]
http://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate2804.epdf?referrer_access_token=yGdI6jbrRWhP2VTmqHpWv9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0Ni8iICE5bSShQpx-7ma0VMjLMR4EzBkjQGpRwmKGUgg_8aDE5eAZ1gATQmF6x6VQy-9IZRRgRtTrsxgxkF0wh8ym4zWp1BdInSeLr9PUgMAdDS2M9NA2QnlhD6DDMJfi-sDrlO65RiZeD8IoBYwF-ISfNbLZS1oryBG6QL3UCeJaIyEAEP4qAThv9F5wuJk_t4LDspKaThwzGrFgrKqJq1I-n9RB-OVei8xfwjtIFlBQ%3D%3D&tracking_referrer=www.huffingtonpost.com
[31] http://upstreampolicy.org/
[32] http://www.onearth.org/magazine/home-cooking-delivered-meals
[33] http://www.eurekarecycling.org
