Stephen Dent Teaches us About When to Recycle

Stephen Dent, planet defender, is a huge advocate for recycling. But when recycling is done wrong, it can be even worse than not recycling. How can you recycle wrong? Basically, by putting the wrong things in your recycling bin! So here is what you can, and can’t, recycle at home.
CAN:
newspapers
soda and beer cans
printer paper
envelopes
glass jars
aluminum cans from canned foods
cereal boxes
shipping boxes
plastic milk jugs

Here is what you CAN’T recycle:
used tin/aluminum foil
used paper plates
styrofoam
half gallon milk or juice containers (anything with a waxy surface)
pizza boxes
soft plastics (if you can crumble it into a ball, don’t recycle it)
tissue paper
used napkins, etc.

If you put too many non-recyclable items in your recycle bin, it can jeopardize the entire batch of recycling, which is a huge waste. You’re far better off putting items you are uncertain about in the regular trash, or better yet, visit your city’s recycling homepage for a specific list of what you can and can’t recycle in your neighborhood. Some cities has three trash types: trash, recycling, and yard waste. Yard waste is generally the items you can’t recycle, like the used pizza boxes and paper plates, along with your heap of fallen leaves, etc. These items are then composted by the city, or undergo a similar process to convert this waste into something useful. Take the extra second and become a recycling hero and one of Stephen Dent’s planet defenders!