Many cleaners will accept hangers back for reuse.
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Plastic cups, like this one, cannot be recycled in Raleigh's program.
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Non-recyclable Items
Items Not Accepted in Raleigh's Recycling Programs
Raleigh has chosen the materials that have historically had a solid market and those which are collected the most effectively and efficiently.
Why Raleigh Recycling Does Not Accept:
- Aerosol Cans - Aerosol cans that are not empty may leak or explode during the sorting and baling processes of recycling. In addition, federal law requires treating pressurized cans as hazardous waste and makes it very costly.
- Auto Batteries - Most stores that sell auto batteries will take them back. This is usually true whether you purchased the battery from them or not.
- Books - Bindings on books make them difficult to recycle as they contain glue which gums up the recycling equipment in the pulping process. Why not practice reuse?
- Egg Cartons (lowest grade of paperboard) - Paperboard egg containers are already made from paper that has been recycled several times. The recycled paper fibers have become so short that they are not useful in making new products.
- Phone Books - Same as the egg cartons. If collected separately and in volume they can be recycled into an insulation material, ceiling tiles or animal bedding products, not a paper product.
- Non-Food Cans - May contain residues from insecticides, herbicides, varnishes, etc. These residues cause problems with the recycling machinery.
- Non-Food Glass Containers - Some manufacturers put chemical stabilizers in the glass containers they make for non-food products. These chemical stabilizers would cause problems in the recycling process.
- Hangers - Hangers jam up the recycling plant equipment that sorts metal cans. Ask your dry cleaner if they will accept the hangers back for reuse. (Accepted for recycling in "scrap metal bin" at Wake County Convenience Centers.)
- Pizza Boxes - Food residue, especially oils from the pizza, make these boxes unsuitable for recycling.
- Plastic Bags - Most grocery stores have collection boxes. Bags in a sorting facility are a nightmare for jamming equipment!
- Plastic Motor Oil Bottles - Residual oil can make a mess of the entire batch when it is washed.
- Plastic Polystyrene Foam - There is no local market for this material. Shipping it to a far away facility would be cost prohibitive.
- Plastic Pots and Trays - These plastics are readily affected by ultraviolet light which makes it brittle and weak. Even though they may have the same recycling number (resin), such as #2 as a plastic bottle, they have had a chemical added to them which makes them melt at a different temperature than a plastic bottle. This is why we ask residents not to look at the number, look only to see that it is a bottle!
- Plastic Cups and Tubs - Non-bottles (those not having a “neck” that is narrower than the base) even those resin coded with #1 or #4 are actually different and cannot be recycled together with plastic bottles. For example, resin code #2 appears on many types of both blow-molded containers (bottles) and injection molded containers (tubs). Blow molding requires plastics with low viscosity or melt-flow index while injection molding requires a higher melt-flow index. To maintain these properties in recycled resin, the two container types can not recycled together. While there are a few processors of the non-bottle type containers around the country, we do not have a local end use market for this type of plastic. As with the pots above, a chemical has been added to this type plastic to make it more rigid.
*** You can help the recycling markets by buying products MADE from recycled materials. We have to close the loop, BUY RECYCLED! ***
For More Information Contact:
Linda A. Leighton
Waste Reduction Specialist
Solid Waste Services Department
400 West Peace Street
Raleigh, NC 27603
919-996-6890
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