Can i recycle milk cartons

Note, copy, and scrap paper. Place in brown paper bags on top of your recycling bin, or in its own recycling container. Please place separate from trash. Considered trash if not. All clean plastic food containers- with 1,2,3,4,5,6,or 7 symbol. Considered Trash if not. Loose containers only - no plastic bags. Metal cans, clean aluminum foil and aerosol cans - No paint cans.

Recycled cartons are made into new products you use every day such as paper towels, tissues, napkins and writing paper.

On collection day, recycling trucks throughout the province pick up your recyclables and take them to the receiving facility. Here, cartons are separated from other recyclable materials using infrared technology. Cartons are packed together and sent to a paper mill.

Gable-top or refrigerated cartons contain additional layers of plastic, while aseptic or shelf-stable cartons contain additional layers of plastic and aluminum. Cartons are designed to keep the product inside as fresh as possible, blocking out light and air that may cause products to spoil.

A cool fact about cartons: The colorful labeling on the outside is printed on the thin plastic layer. When recycled, removing that layer leaves behind valuable paper fibers that are used to make new paper products. Typically, its journey begins at a materials recovery facility where it gets separated from other waste and types of recyclables.

From there, the cartons are shipped to paper mills where they are mixed with water in a giant blender called a hydra-pulper. This process separates the paper from the plastic and aluminum. Once separation is complete, the paper fiber is ready to be transformed into new products such as tissues, office paper, and even building materials depending on the area of the country and the mill.

The plastic and aluminum materials are collected from the hydra-pulping process as well. The plastic, when re-purposed separately, is often used for shipping crates and building materials.

Find a local recycling solution for cartons. The Carton Council is one of these partners. Skip to content. By Leah Blunt Nov 14, juice cartons , milk cartons , recycling , recycling-milk-juice-cartons.

Shelf-stable cartons , as the name suggests, can be placed on store shelves and are used mostly for juice, milk, soy milk, soup, broth, and wine stored at room temperature. Refrigerated cartons are found in refrigerated sections of grocery stores and contain products like milk, juice, cream, and egg substitutes. Top Responsible Carton Manufacturers Your role in recycling improvements starts in the store aisle.

Here we are only discussing the gable top and aseptic packages. That means that it's less expensive to ship food and drinks in cartons, and it also uses less fossil fuel for transportation. Another energy-saving aspect of aseptic cartons is that the contents don't need to be refrigerated during shipping, at the store, or at your home, which helps conserve energy. Unlike metal cans or glass containers, there are still many places where carton recycling isn't possible, which means the layers of plastic, paper, and aluminum may end up in the landfill.

Cartons include high quality materials, all of which can be made into new products. The biggest challenge for recyclers is separating those components. There are a few different ways to recycle milk cartons, whether they are gable top or aseptic.

If you have curbside recycling of milk and other types of cartons, simply empty the container, rinse it out, and put it in your recycling bin. No need to crush the container, and in some places, this actually slows the recycling process down. Some areas encourage you to screw plastic caps back on and push straws inside and the Carton Council recommends this , while others say not to include these items in your recycling, so check with your local recycler.

If you live in an area where these containers aren't recycled at curbside, you may be able to mail them in. Some communities have drop off days when they collect these containers and mail them in bulk. In addition, the Carton Council provides the following instructions and addresses to send your cartons for recycling:. Of course, you can always reuse milk cartons instead of recycling them. There are a number of ways you can take advantage of their unique packaging advantages for projects and crafts.