What is recycling?

Recycling means taking materials from products you have finished using and making brand new products with them. For example, most of the aluminum cans in the United States are made with recycled aluminum. So if you drink juice or soda from a can, recycle that can instead of throwing it in the trash. That can will stay in the Recycling Loop and out of the landfill.

How clean do things need to be?

All paper and cardboard needs to be completely dry and clean, otherwise it gets sent to the landfill. For plastics, metal and glass, don't go nuts, but too much food on recyclables does turn them into trash. Don't go at it with a toothbrush and dish soap, but a good rinse is important. Just don't have lots of food on your recycling.

Are we cutting down the world's trees just to make paper?

No. Forest surface is increasing by 340,000 hectares per year. In the developed world, advantage is taken of the massive research which has been devoted to developing the best strains and to planting and conservation techniques likely to produce the healthiest trees. The destruction of rainforests in South America and Indonesia is an ecological disaster, but has nothing to do with the papermaker. Fibre needed for papermaking does not come from tropical sources and 80% of the wood used by the European pulp and paper industry comes directly from Europe.

I heard that recycling doesn't make environmental or economic sense. Is this true?

No.  Environmentally, recycling uses less raw materials and creates less waste.  The most commonly used methods for waste disposal may be environmentally damaging and unsustainable. Therefore any way to reduce the volume of waste being disposed in this fashion may be beneficial.  Economically, recycling decreases the cost of manufacturing because recycled materials are purer, and less energy is needed to process them or transport them from their point of origin.  Since materials like glass and aluminum can be recycled indefinitely as there is no change to the materials, the savings in cost is substantial. 

What does the recycling get made into?

Generally speaking, aluminum comes back as the same products it was in the first place. Glass is made into various glass products or sandblasting powder. Fine paper comes back as either fine paper or toilet and tissue paper. Newspaper is turned into more newspaper, boxboard or insulation. Mixed papers (all of the above plus boxboard and glossy) come back as boxboard, egg cartons and those crazy paperboard packing blocks. Plastics are sorted according to resin, and depending on the type, can turn into plastic piping, carpet, cushion stuffing, plastiwood, non-food-grade bottles, and trash or recycling cans. Cardboard comes back as cardboard, boxboard, and biodegradable flower pots.

Why should I buy recycled products?

Our community's responsibility to recycle properly is only one step of the process. Recycling has not actually taken place until we buy or use products made from recycled materials. By purchasing recycled products, you are creating a market for the materials you throw in the recycle bins.

Thanks to increased demand for recycled goods, there are now more than 4,500 recycled-content products available. Be on the lookout for recycled versions of products you buy, especially the everyday items that you use the most, like toilet paper rolls or printing paper.
You can now purchase many recycled and environmentally friendly products at the Skidshop. Please look out for the tags that say "The Skidshop Takes the Environment to Heart."

Why is it important to recycle?

When an item isn't recycled, it becomes waste, piled up or buried and ultimately never put to good use again.  Recycling allows us to avoid constantly using raw materials by finding new uses for previously used resources.  Recycling helps to saves space by reusing what would otherwise be sent to landfills.  Waste/landfills can cause a wide degree of environmental problems, including the release of methane gas, (which contributes to climate change/global warming) the contamination of water and soil, and the presence of excess dust, unpleasant odor, and noise pollution.  Since recycling reduces the amount of wasted material, it reduces the extent of environmental harm done by landfills.  Lastly, it's important to recycle because, it's easy to put of cans, bottles and paper in their own disposal bins, and given the range of benefits, there's no good reason not to! 

What about milk and juice cartons made from paper? Can they be recycled?

Cartons are not made from paper alone but comprise of about 75% paper, 20% plastic (polyethylene) and 5% aluminium foil. As they are an amalgam of materials, they cannot be recycled along with ordinary paper. They can be reprocessed into other items or incinerated to produce energy, or landfilled. There are very few collection points for the reprocessing of such cartons in this country, although a reprocessing plant was recently constructed in Scotland. Contact The Alliance for Beverage Cartons and the Environment for further details.