

In the City of Portland, you can toss pizza boxes in the food scraps bin. Pizza boxes: Although they’re cardboard, pizza boxes are often soaked with grease. So mucking them up with the stuff that doesn’t belong there – that either slows the sorting lines like plastic bags do, or makes other recyclables less marketable like lids can – eventually drives up costs for everyone. “Everything goes into a water bath where it’s supposed to fall apart,” she says, but freezer boxes and paper cups stay whole, contaminating the mixture.”Ī cost-efficient recycling system depends on making sure recyclables are actually recycled once they leave your bin. The added plastic, says Derksen, means that when they end up at a mill for recycling, they don’t break down in the paper-making process. Coffee cups go in the garbage. Like freezer boxes, “paper” cups are also made with plastic so they don’t dissolve into a sodden mass when filled with hot coffee. Paper cups: This goes for water cups and coffee cups. They may not seem different from cereal or cookie boxes but they are made with a plastic that keeps them from getting soggy when exposed to moisture. Milk, juice and aseptic cartons are layered rather than penetrated with plastic, making the materials easier to separate.

Think waffles, popsicles or butter boxes.

These containers are not 100 percent paper, but because the manufacturers of these kinds of cartons have invested in ways to collect and recycle them they’re a part of the home recycling system.įrozen and refrigerated food boxes: Keep food boxes that go in the freezer or refrigerator out of your home recycling. You can also recycle milk and juice cartons, as well as aseptic containers that allow soup, broth and soy milk to be stored at room-temperature. Green cleaning + Open this submenu − Close this submenuĮverything from junk mail to newspapers to egg cartons (the paper ones) goes in your home recycling bin.Polishes, cleaners or waxes, automotive.Polishes and waxes, wood furniture and floors.
