Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Why you shouldn't put pizza boxes in the recycling bin
I didn't know this, maybe everyone else did, but it appears that despite being made of cardboard, you shouldn't put pizza boxes in the recycling bin as the grease from your pizza contaminates the box.
Click here for a list of the top 10 of things that people mistakenly put in the recycling bin (not guilty of the other 9 things, m'lud).
Tags for Forum Posts: recycling
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Maddy on
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This also show the importance of washing out and drying food containers before putting in the recycling bin, otherwise they might contaminate the paper.
I'm never sure about tin foil - it isn't specifically on Haringey's leaflet, although it says 'food trays', which I assume means both plastic and foil. I get annoyed by those clear fruit containers from supermarkets which could be replaced by cardboard.
You can take batteries up to the recycling centre, but not put in the green bin.
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Permalink Reply by Sarah on
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Tin foil can go in but it's best to wait until you have a lot and bap it up - otherwise the machines can get confused
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Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
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What you mean to say is that, the lid can be recycled, but not the greasy bottom.
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Permalink Reply by JoeW on
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Does this actually apply to Haringey? Recycling seems to vary a lot from one authority to another. I know there are some local authorities that require residents to pre-sort the recycling into paper, plastics, bottles etc. but here everything goes into one bin, so someone further down the line must be sorting it properly. There are different grades of recycled paper/cardboard for example so maybe pizza boxes in some areas do get recycled?
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Permalink Reply by Liz on
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Just says that greasy paper can't be recycled. Having googled a little, no less an authority than Stanford University explains why:
Pizza boxes are made from corrugated cardboard, however the cardboard becomes soiled with grease, cheese, and other foods once the pizza has been placed in the box. Once soiled, the paper cannot be recycled because the paper fibers will not be able to be separated from the oils during the pulping process. Food is a major source of contamination in paper recycling.
However, I guess if you shred the boxes (and you have a big enough compost heap), you could probably compost them. I throw paper towels and tissues into the compost.Also, I suppose John's point that lids are often not soiled means you could separate the greasy from the non-greasy bits.
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I recently learned that recycled toilet paper often contains BPAs which are hormone disrupters - they come from the stuff put in paper to stop it absorbing ink. Not good stuff to be putting into the watercourse...
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Permalink Reply by claire taylor on
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One thing i wander about is the box my repeat prescription of tablets comes in. There's no recycling siģn on it, it's just regular cardborad. I usually rip the sticker off that's got my details on and put it in the green bin....with my fingers crossed.
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I'm working on the assumption that somebody further downstream knows what they're doing. If you put something obviously wrong in your green bin, Veolia refuse to take it and put a "contaminated" label on the handle. But somebody else must be sorting it into paper and tin and glass and plastic further on, and know what amount of contamination (how much grease stuck to your pizza box etc.) is acceptable?
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Machines sort it - though there is a hand sort too
https://youtu.be/7CFE5tD1CCI
The worst contamination is when there is a lot of the same thing. Like unsold Daily Mails. I went to the paper recycling plant and learned they have to mix with with better quality papers for it too be recycled! (Ok it's to do with the type of ink rather than the content, but I love that fact)
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Sometimes there is a bit of liner paper between the pizza and the box. Or just get less greasy pizza - Loven Presents is great
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Permalink Reply by Alan Stanton on
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Zena Brabazon and I went to Vancouver on holiday in 2004. We met some interesting people running various community projects. One was a hotline where residents could phone and ask advice about recycling, composting etc. Back home I tried unsuccessfully to interest people in Haringey in what we'd seen.
It's clear that lots of people want to do the "right" thing. So they need clear, dependable, up-to-date information.
They probably want to "fail forward" learning from any mistakes. If I mistakenly contaminate our green top recycling bin then want to know what and how I did something wrong. I also want to find this information as quickly and easily as possible.It seems to make good sense for some standardisation to take place across boroughs and wider. For example, in colours, labels and symbols which identify which bins to use.
The present Haringey "system" seems a bit of a mess. For instance, until the end of November are Veolia taking bagged green waste or not? I've seen an email sent to a LibDem councillor which says they are. Other people say they're not.
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