Here's What Happens To Your Delivery Boxes. It's Better Than You Think

[Judi Lynn]

By Dan Graeber
11/27/20 AT 2:10 PM

- video at link -

An increase in recycling is one of the silver linings during the pandemic, and U.S. suppliers are finding more uses for everything from cardboard to dirty pizza boxes.

We’re shopping online and ordering take out more than we did in 2019. The Solid Waste Association of North America finds total U.S. residential recycling programs are collecting 7% more material than they were this time last year.

“We’re more than happy to see it,” Brent Bell, a vice president for recycling at Houston-based Waste Management Inc., told the Wall Street Journal. “We’ve said this is valuable material.”

Brick-and-mortar sales are on the decline, though companies that do cater to online shoppers, such as Amazon are succeeding. Home improvement chains have also seen their business boom and all that can add up to a lot of boxes.

But with offices closing, some recyclers are seeing their paper-shredding business dry up. That’s where all that cardboard comes in. Texas Recycling Inc. said cardboard can help make up for the 40% drop in office-paper shredding.

More:
https://www.ibtimes.com/heres-what-happens-your-delivery-boxes-its-better-you-think-3084154

[House of Roberts]

1. My recycler doesn't take pizza boxes.

So far, I've found a use for most of the Chewy.com boxes. They have a size code printed on them that helps determine what I best use them for.

[Maraya1969]

2. I always put them in recycling. I rinse them out first though. I bet your

recycling company will change that shortly if they realize there is a profit to be made.

[Salviati]

3. You should always check with your local recycling program about what to do with pizza boxes.

If they're grease stained, they usually don't want them even if they are otherwise clean. And "might not want" means "might ruin a lot of what they're bundled in with" So it's best to follow their recommendations.

A lot of places might not want them at all, just because they don't trust people to keep the greasy or otherwise food soiled ones out of the recycling.

[Maraya1969]

5. I checked and they are fine as long as they are not ,"dirty".

[Grokenstein]

4. The Dangers of Wishcycling: Why it's important to only recycle the right items

https://mediaroom.wm.com/the-dangers-of-wishcycling/

Messaging has historically emphasized the importance of placing recyclables in recycling carts. As a result, consumers now equate the placement of materials in their recycling cart with recycling. From there, it is out-of-sight-out-of-mind and it is up to recyclers to ensure that discarded materials are recycled into new products.

This poses a difficult education challenge, since it’s hard to teach consumers that their materials are only recycled when they replace virgin materials – not when they’re collected. It’s only when this substitution happens that we realize the environmental and economic benefits of recycling. And, in fact, placing non-recyclable materials into the cart leads to additional economic and environmental costs, with no benefits and (ironically) less recycling. We call this wishful recycling “wishcycling” and it is lethal to our nation’s recycling programs.

So, why is wishcycling such a problem? There are multiple reasons, but what it all boils down to is that nonrecyclables in the recycling carts ultimately get sorted out at the recycling facility and disposed of as trash. In other words, “wishcycling” does no one any favors, except adding costs and reducing the amount of items that can ultimately be recycled.

For example, the average contamination rate for materials that we collect in curbside recycling programs has grown to about 25%. That means that 500 pounds of every 2,000 pounds that we collect at the curb is ultimately discarded as non-recyclable. This increases the cost of recycling by increasing the cost of sorting materials, transporting and disposing of trash, and also includes the lost value of good recyclables that are ruined due to contamination.

More at link. My local trash pickup will actually fine my landlord for missorted trash, and my landlord has promised to "share the pain" with all tenants if need be. Yet I still found a sack filled with Styrofoam in the paper bin yesterday, because stupid people don't listen and never learn.