Recycling Used Paper Plates

Paper towels napkins paper plates and tissues are all paper products however they are never recyclable.

Recycling used paper plates. Food contaminates the recycling product so used paper plates and plastic utensils should be thrown out with the garbage. Important note on recycling paper. If the uncontaminated plate is coated in wax or plastic make sure your recycler accepts mixed paper for recycling. This means that bottles and cans need to be empty of all liquids.

This is the reason that other food related items are non recyclable used paper plates used napkins used paper towels etc. Because they usually come in contact with food wastes greases and possibly bodily fluids they are not able to be cleaned during the recycling process and should not be with other clean paper waste like magazines and copy paper. Please confirm with your local. The paper plate is recyclable if it is not contaminated by food for example plates you may have used for crafts that don t have glue paint or sticker residue.

The first part of the 3rs is reduce and disposable paper plates are really unnecessary in most situations and also usually really frustrating to eat off. By recycling one ton of paper you can save seventeen trees. However steps may be added or omitted in some cases depending on the quality of the recovered paper with thin lightweight newspaper requiring fewer steps than thick cardboard boxes 8. With all the symbols and messaging we re given knowing what belongs in your bin.

That may seem like a lot of paper at first but when you think about how many paper products we use every day it adds up quickly. The most important thing for recycling paper is that there is no contamination in the recycling bin. Finishing up our impromptu barbecue themed week i thought i d run a post that is sure to get some people screaming don t use them at all. Use real reusable plates and those people have a very good point.

Whether you recycle your own paper or recycle paper on an industrial scale the process is essentially the same.