Dear Recycle Lady,
I have a large collection of workbooks. They have a soft cover and the pages appear to be made of paper similar to newspaper. Are these workbooks recyclable?
Dedicated Recycler
Dear Dedicated Recycler,
Since workbooks are made of paper, and paper is the most commonly recycled material worldwide, chances are your notebooks will be recyclable with a few checkups. Most workbooks are made of sheets of paper bound with a magazine-type cover, a cardboard cover, or a plastic cover. This cover must be removed before recycling the pages. The magazine cover (your soft cover) recycles with magazines, the cardboard cover recycles with cardboard, and the plastic cover goes in the trash. Before recycling the pages, check for heavily marked pages or pages with stickers. These pages should be torn out and trashed. The remaining pages with their soft cover can be recycled with magazines. After removing the cardboard cover or the plastic cover, the pages also recycle with magazines. Recycling these notebooks instead of sending them to the landfill is good for the environment. Every piece of paper recycled saves forests and minimizes energy usage. It means less rubbish sent to landfills, which produce methane that creates climate change. Have you considered donating your workbooks to a school or a group that works with children? Used notebooks can often be reused, particularly if they have empty pages.
Dear Recycle Lady,
Has the number of people using plastic bottles decreased after all the information that has been published about the hazards of drinking bottled water?
User of Steel Water Bottle
Dear User of Steel Water Bottle,
It appears that information about microplastics in plastic water bottles is finally having an effect. According to worldmetrics.org, 83% of U.S. households used plastic bottles regularly in 2023, whereas in 2026, this number decreased to 70%. However, the 40 billion plastic water bottles produced in the U.S. indicates that the use of plastic bottles remains robust. Besides harmful microplastics found in bottled water, another concern is that BPA can leach from the plastic bottles during high temperatures leading to potential hormonal effects. Hot water in plastic water bottles leaches acetaldehyde molecules, a carcinogen. Nanoplastics, which are smaller than microplastics and leach from plastic water bottles, can penetrate the blood-brain barrier, causing inflammation in 93% of samples. Only 23% of plastic bottles in the U.S. are recycled and a single plastic water bottle takes 450 to 1,000 years to decompose in a landfill, releasing microplastics over time. The estimated 500 billion plastic water bottles used globally each year are a major contributor to the 60 million tons of plastic waste created globally every year. The cost to produce these plastic water bottles on the global market is projected to reach $78 billion by 2028.
Dear Recycle Lady,
What are boxes like cereal boxes made of when it comes to recycling? I know that they aren’t considered to be made of cardboard.
Need to Know
Dear Need to Know,
Cereal boxes actually are made of cardboard. Check the inside of your cereal box. If it looks like cardboard, it recycles with cardboard. Some boxes are made of white board, rather than cardboard, but they still recycle with cardboard.
Good News! Hawaii is testing a clever way to give ocean plastic a second life. They have found a way to turn discarded fishing nets and other recycled plastic into pellets that can be mixed into asphalt for roads. Researchers are studying whether these plastic-enhanced roads are durable and environmentally safe. The idea could help tackle two problems at once — marine debris and limited landfill space. Talk about making the road less wasteful! (fto.com)
Have questions about recycling, or interesting information about recycling? Send questions or requests to [email protected]. Dear Recycle Lady is sponsored jointly by the Greenbrier Recycling Center and Greenworks Recycling.
