Recycling Paper Properly

Recycling can lead to a lot of confusion. Every municipality accepts different items. This makes it difficult for people to know what is recyclable versus what isn’t. Recycling is vital for the planet, and being informed on how to recycle correctly is a significant first step towards making the world a better place. To start, we’ll be going over recycling paper the right way.

Brown Paper

Brown paper is recyclable, but before you recycle it, see if someone else can make use of it. It’s useful for placemats and wrapping gifts, among other things.

Printer Paper

Recycling any paper from your printers and notebooks is perfectly acceptable. Interestingly, people are less likely to recycle printer paper if it is torn or crumpled. Don’t let this dissuade you. It’s still the same printer paper, and as such, it can be recycled without any problems.

Shredded Paper

Crumpled paper may be recyclable, but shredded paper is not. The fibers of shredded paper have been shortened too much. These infinitesimal fiber shreds run the risk of jamming machinery while also contaminating the bales of other materials.

Shredded paper can’t be recycled, but it does serve as solid packing material, especially for more fragile objects.

Receipts

Because receipts have BPA, they cannot be recycled. They can’t even be composted either.

Photos

You can’t recycle photos.

Glossy Magazines

Magazines can be recycled. But many artists use magazines as the foundation for their art projects. Before recycling magazines, see if you or someone else can reuse them. Newer magazines can be donated to nursing homes, libraries, and family shelters.

Parchment Paper

Parchment paper gets stained by various foods and oils, so recycling it is out of the question. The good news is that parchment paper can be reused many times, and you can still compost it when you’re done with it.

Butcher Paper

Butcher paper contains plastic, so it can’t be recycled or composted.

Wax Paper

With wax paper, it depends on its coating to determine whether composting it is acceptable. It can either be coated with vegetable wax or a type of petroleum-based paraffin. Papers that have vegetable wax can be composted in industrial environments, but petroleum-based paraffins can neither be recycled nor composted.

Newspaper

Recycling and composting newspaper is perfectly fine.

Paper Towels And Napkins

Their fibers are also too short for recycling. However, paper towels and napkins can be composted.

Envelopes

If you’re recycling envelopes, make sure you remove the plastic windows first. This is important because the paper needs to be as clean as it can be.

Pasta/Cereal Boxes

Like envelopes, recycling these is ok as long as you remove any plastic windows before recycling.

Contact WB Waste

WB Waste is a waste services holding company. Our focus is on delivering environmentally friendly waste solutions through our family of waste collection, recycling, processing, and transportation companies. Our clients are from all sectors, Government, Business, and Residential across all industries: hospitality, construction, education, transportation, and many more.

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