Dear Recycle Lady,
My child brought a Pringle’s snack pack home from a friend’s house that was a small container of potato chips covered with aluminum foil. Can this small piece of aluminum foil be recycled?
All For Using Foil
Dear All For Using Foil,
Yes, small pieces of aluminum foil can be recycled. Give it the “aluminum test” by crinkling it up, then release it. If it is aluminum, it will remain crinkled. Shiny materials that look like aluminum will spring back to nearly the original shape.
Dear Recycle Lady,
I must mail out several letters at a time and often use up all address labels on a page. Is the sheet of paper address labels come on recyclable? Why aren’t address labels recyclable?
Uses Address Labels
Dear Uses Address Labels,
The address labels themselves are recyclable. If they are used on envelopes and white paper, they can be put in with office paper. If they are used on colored envelopes, they are recycled with magazines. It is the shiny paper that the address labels are stuck to that is not recyclable, as the sheet itself contains plastic that enables the labels to be removed. The glue on the labels is not a problem.
Dear Recycle Lady,
Why must colored envelopes be put in with magazines and not office paper?
Likes Color
Dear Likes Color,
Envelopes that are colored are difficult to dye, as the fibers they are made with are not white. Make a tear in the envelope. If the tear shows only color, the envelope is recycled with magazines. If the tear shows white inside, the envelope is recycled with office paper. The same thing is true with bright colored paper. Tearing them will show color that is impossible to dye for later recycling.
Kudos to the Shepherd’s Center in Lewisburg for serving a tasty boxed/take-home lunch to participants in a light cardboard box that is recyclable with cardboard and 100% compostable. Additionally, the delicious cookies were in a waxed paper baggie, not a plastic baggie. Also, kudos to the WVSOM O’Café for using the eco-friendly boxes and bags when they prepared the boxed lunches for the Shepherd’s Center as part of their community involvement program. Hopefully, more groups will follow their example and not use hard plastic containers or Styrofoam take-out containers and plastic baggies.
Good News: Manchester City Football Center, England, has banned single-use plastics from their Etihad Stadium which will save 1 million plastic cups and 500,000 plastic bottles from being thrown away every football (soccer) season. (Fto.com)
Have questions about recycling, or interesting information about recycling? Send questions or requests to recyclelady@greenbrier-swa.com. Dear Recycle Lady is sponsored jointly by the Greenbrier Recycling Center and Greenworks Recycling.
