What Are Hard to Recycle Items?

Reduce. Recycle. Reuse.

Follow us on our series ‘Let’s Talk Recycling.’ Recycling is a large part of a sustainable future and something we can all take part in as a community.

You have checked with your local curbside recycle service and have a groove going with the routine. Fall is coming up and you are cleaning out some things in the house and changing some things up. What to do with all these random things the curbside will not take? These things are known as hard to recycle items. Items when used once for an extended time either do not work or are nonreusable.

Of course, it would be easier just to throw them in garbage bins or by the road, but you are now invested in being a part of the solution, implementing feasible sustainability for the household. Here are some things that fall into the category of hard to recycle items.

• Styrofoam – cups, take-out food containers, coolers, and packing
• Electronics – televisions, laptops, coffee makers, cables, chargers, tablets, cell phones, desktop computers, mixers, and Christmas lights.
• Appliances – washers, dryers, stoves, and water heaters.
• Metals – bed frames, wire shelving, nails/screws, cat food cans, energy drink cans, and gutters.
• Hazardous materials – paint, nail polish, paint thinner, pesticides, bleach, gasoline, pool chemicals, car fluids, and bug killer
• Plastics (certain kinds) – plastic wrap, flexible packaging, small plastics (3 inches or smaller), and some bottles
• Other items – tires, mattresses, cooking oils, compost, fire extinguishers, fluorescent tubes, and propane tanks.

Some of these items may be reused for other purposes. Donating your still functioning cell phones, computers, or chargers, to women’s shelters. Waste is hard to avoid. The real key is to reduce the use of these types of items. Secondhand stores are a wonderful place to donate or buy appliances. Learn how to make your own hand and laundry soaps to refill the old containers. If reducing and reusing is not an option, it is time to check with local drop of facilities. Some of these facilities will schedule pick-ups for certain hard to recycle items. Atlanta is privileged to have Peggy Whitlow Ratcliffe and the CHaRM staff. CHaRM is Live Thrive’s Center for Hard to Recycle Materials facility.

Follow up with us to learn all about CHaRM, more recycling contamination, and how to prep items for recycling.