How to recycle household materials

JULY 2022 C3 How to recycle household materials

By Jennifer Gilbert

Special to The Enterprise

Do you ever wonder what you personally could do to slow climate change? A major way that you, your household and the larger community can help to slow climate change is to sort your recycling and organic waste. Landfills are the third largest source of methane emissions in California. When buried in landfills, organic waste (including recyclables like paper, cardboard, as well as food scraps, food-soiled paper products, yard trimmings and other organic-based wastes) emit 20 percent of the state’s methane (a climate super pollutant 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide) and air pollutants like PM 2.5 (which contributes to health conditions like asthma). Items placed in the trash are sent directly to the landfill and are not sorted out. Since organic wastes make up half of what Californians send to landfills it’s important to sort everything into the correct bin. Reducing the amount of organic waste in landfills has a direct impact on the climate crisis and can create healthier air for all of us to breathe.

In Davis, most of our waste can be placed in either the recycling or organics carts. Help us continue to keep material out of the landfill by taking a careful look at what you are throwing away to see if it can be recycled or composted instead! • Paper: Newspapers, magazines, catalogs, junk mail, phone books, office paper, cereal boxes and shredded paper. • Plastics, metals and glass: Steel cans, aluminum cans, clean aluminum foil, aluminum pie plates, rigid plastics (including plastics #1-#7), metal and plastic caps and lids, plastic milk jugs and glass food and beverage containers. Please give containers a quick rinse (this helps the material and your cart stay clean) and place plastic caps on bottles prior to placing them in your recycling cart. • Organics: Fruits and vegetables, breads, rice, pasta, meat, bones, cheese, paper towels, paper take-out food packaging, facial tissues (yes, even after they have been used), greasy pizza boxes, refrigerated paper cartons and more. • Cardboard: Remove all packing materials (such as packing paper, plastic air pillows, foam and packing peanuts), flatten the cardboard boxes, and stack them flat on the ground next to your recycling cart, and Recology Davis will pick them up on your collection day.

EnvironmEntal UpdatE

What still goes in the trash?

• Diapers and other personal sanitary products • Broken dishes and glassware • Polystyrene foam (a.k.a.”Styrofoam”) • Plastic wrappers, plastic film and plastic bags • Pet waste • Pre-moistened disposable wipes • Disposable gloves • Single-use (disposable) face masks Most common recycling questions:

• Do I need to keep paper separated from other recyclables?

Yes! When the recycling truck empties recycling carts, the paper goes into one compartment of the truck, and the plastics, metals and glass go into a separate compartment. • What do I do with paper cartons of juice, milk, soy milk or broth?

This can be tricky as there are two different kinds of cartons that are made from different materials. Cartons that are shelf-stable and do not require refrigeration before opening are not recyclable locally and should go in the trash. Non-shelf-stable cartons that must be refrigerated before opening can be placed in the brown-lidded organics cart for composting. If it has a removable plastic cap, take that off and place it in the recycling cart (don’t worry about the plastic spout, it will be screened out of the finished compost). • Are our recyclables, particularly plastics, still being recycled? Yes! Because Davis collects paper separately from other recyclables and all recycling is hand-sorted here in Davis, our recyclables are still recycled and are not landfilled. Recology prioritizes domestic markets whenever possible, but they also follow the Basel Convention and do not ship lowgrade plastics overseas. Recology only export plastics that they know are recycled (they have followed their bales of plastics overseas and visited the recycling facilities to verify this).

Keep up the great work recycling, Davis!

For more information on recycling and composting, visit DavisRecycling.org, or contact the City Davis Public Works Utilities and Operations Department at PWWeb@CityofDavis.org or 530-757-5686. —Jennifer Gilbert is a Conservation Coordinator with the City of Davis. She can be reached at PWWeb@ CityofDavis. org.