Paperboard>
(cereal, spaghetti,
pop, beer boxes...)

Plenty of dry goods come in paperboard packaging, such as spaghetti and cereal.  The recycled standard today is "100% recycled paperboard."  This means that the package is made from 100% recycled paper, which can include a combination of pre- and post-consumer recycled content.  Thinner paperboard containers tend to have more pre-consumer content, and thicker containers (like a cereal box) have more post-consumer content.

More than 60 manufacturers currently use the symbol provided by the 100% Recycled Paperboard Alliance, and still more companies use the same material but use a different or no symbol.  The Rock-Tenn plant in St. Paul recycles 1,000 tons of paper a day into 100% recycled paperboard cereal boxes and other containers for General Mills and other companies.  The plant, located at Cretin/Vandalia and Interstate 94, recycles 15 different grades of paper and has been recycling since 1908!

Click on the 100% Recycled Paperboard logo for more information about the program.  Recycled paperboard has taken about 32 percent of the U.S. paperboard market.  If you don't see any recycled content information on a paperboard package, ask the store manager how to contact the manufacturer and let the manufacturer know that recycling and recycled content is important to you!  Many community recycling programs accept paperboard (often called boxboard or chipboard).  Check with your local recycling coordinator.

There are other types of paperboard.  Pop and beer can cartons are an example of a "wet strength" paperboard.  They are designed to maintain their strength so your cans don't fall out if the box gets wet.  These cartons may contain recycled content but they are not necessarily labeled.  When put into a pulping machine with other recycled paper in a paper mill--which uses water rather than chemicals--the wet strength paperboard will not break down very easily.  However, if collected in sufficient quantity, paper mills may make adjustments in the process to accommodate the material.  Please check with your local recycling coordinator to see if wet-strength paperboard is accepted by your community recycling program.

There are a few communities in Minnesota such as the City of Hutchinson that have composting facilities to accept residential food waste and non-recyclable paper, including wet strength paperboard.  It is likely that more of these facilities will spring up in the future.

Egg cartons are often made from recycled newsprint, which is a different type of paper product altogether.  A plant making egg cartons will place 100% recycled newsprint in a pulp machine with water and essentially pour liquid pulp into molds.  Pactiv Corporation's plant in Moorhead, Minnesota makes egg cartons this way from recycled newsprint collected around the region.  Used egg cartons are often not collected by community recycling programs because the paper fibers have become so short that they have little value in making new paper products.  However, like wet strength paperboard, egg cartons could be composted, even in your backyard compost bin!

You probably won't bring home much cardboard from the grocery store (which is different than the paperboard used to make cereal boxes).  However, food distributors ship most of their products in corrugated cardboard boxes--you just never see it.  (A corrugated box has a "wavy" layer--or medium--in the middle of two flat cardboard layers.)  Once the grocery store staff stock the products on the shelves, the store will recycle the cardboard in a compactor, baler, or recycling container.  Paper mills love this material--which recyclers call "old corrugated containers" or OCC.  It keeps much of its strength in the papermaking process and usually gets collected in large and homogenous quantities, such as at grocery stores.

The wavy medium in a box has recycled content in it 43 percent of the time. The stiff liner on the outside--or linerboard--has recycled content in it 18.5 percent of the time.

One of the largest recyclers of OCC in Minnesota is Liberty Paper in Becker, Minnesota.  The company's paper mill produces corrugated material for its sister company Liberty Carton that is made from 100% post-consumer recycled paper.  Click here to see their web site, which includes a great interactive tour of the papermaking process!  The Rock-Tenn plant in St. Paul mentioned in the paperboard section is the oldest largest recycler of OCC in the state.  For information about corrugated packaging, consult the Corrugated Packaging Council's web site by clicking here.

The use of plastic containers has expanded rapidly in recent years.  More and more food and beverage companies are switching to plastic because plastic is shatter proof, it is lighter than glass, and the packaging allows flexibility in using custom shapes and colors.  

Today you will find pop, milk, juice, water, ketchup, jam, other condiments, health and beauty products, and cleaning products in plastic containers.  

These containers are generally bottles.  Approximately 95% of all plastic bottles are of two resin types:  polyethylene terepthalate (PET or PETE) and high density polyethylene (HDPE).  PET bottles usually have a number one on the bottom and HDPE usually have a number two.

It is important to note that the recycling symbol with the number in it only identifies the resin type.  It does not necessarily mean that the container can be recycled in your community program or that it has recycled content.  The symbols can be used by consumers, recyclers, and plastics processors to group resin types together for recycling.

Let's discuss the numbers!

PET is used for a variety of food and beverage products.  Some of these containers have recycled content.  Some PET bottles with recycled content tend to have a "multi-layer" design in order to block out oxygen from the product.  The middle layers that are not in contact with the product are where you will generally find the recycled content.  Recycled resin is also used in many non-food PET bottles--such as household cleaners and detergent bottles.  Coca-Cola and Pepsi are using 10% recycled content PET in new soft drink bottles.  

Most community recycling programs accept PET bottles.  The material is highly desired by plastics processors, especially the carpet industry that makes polyester carpet.  Twelve percent of all recycled PET in the United States gets made into new bottles.  The caps for PET containers are usually NOT made of PET, but of polypropylene (number five).  This is why recycling programs encourage you to remove and throw away the cap before recycling PET bottles.  Polypropylene is generally not accepted in your community recycling program.  It won't hurt the recycling process to leave the cap on, but it will be removed in the manufacturing process.

Recycled PET can also be found in the new transparent and perforated clamshell containers for fruits and vegetables.  Two regional companies--Ultra Pac in Rogers, Minnesota, and Creative Forming in Ripon, Wisconsin--make recycled PET clamshell containers.  

It should be noted that other types of PET plastic, such as black PET microwaveable trays and disposable cups, are incompatible with bottles in your local recycling program.  There are currently no end markets for black PET, and plastic cups can be recycled if they are collected in large quantities but separately from bottles.

For more information about PET, check out the web site for the National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR) by clicking here.

The most commonly seen high density polyethylene (HDPE) containers are milk jugs.  Shoppers have seen additional containers with HDPE, like shampoo and cleaning products.  Like PET, HDPE containers can be made into customized shapes and colors, which makes it an attractive material.  

Many HDPE containers use recycled content.  Mainstream manufacturers like Proctor & Gamble use a minimum of 25% post-consumer content in laundry and other bottles.  Be sure to check labels.

Recycled HDPE gets made into all sorts of products.
35% of recovered HDPE bottles go back into bottles
19% of recovered HDPE bottles go into pipe
19% of recovered HDPE bottles go into plastic lumber and lawn/garden products

You can find a section in this web site on plastic lumber and how to get it by clicking here.  Our recycled products catalog lists a wide variety of recycled plastic items, as does the American Plastics Council's Plastics Products Directory.

One obstacle to recycling HDPE lately is the new "light blocking" opaque white milk jug.  Dairy producers have begun switching to these bottles reportedly because this "pigmented HDPE" protects the milk from light better than regular HDPE.  Plastic lumber manufacturers use colorant to make the lumber into different colors.  The pigmented HDPE resin does not accept colorant well and tends to keeps its original color.  

Lids for HDPE containers also tend to be polypropylene, which is why you should remove the caps before recycling the bottle.  Polypropylene is usually not accepted in community recycling programs in Minnesota.

If you are having trouble recycling plastic bags in Minnesota, check out our dedicated page on this topic.

Vinyl--or polyvinyl chloride (PVC)--shows up in a small minority of grocery store packaging.  It is unlikely that any vinyl bottles have recycled content in them, since only a handful of plastics plants around the nation use post-consumer vinyl.  (Pre-consumer vinyl is easily recycled and is made into a variety of products.)  Vinyl is often used for clear, flexible bottles that require a built-in handle--that is, one through which liquid flows, like a soap refill bottle.  Some shampoo bottles and most auto care products are also packaged in PVC bottles.  PET bottles do not work well for these type of containers.  Vinyl film is also used for clear "plastic wrap" products.

Most community recycling programs do not accept vinyl bottles.  Many other communities collect all plastic bottles for recycling, instead of relying on the resin identification code, to avoid confusion.  To learn more about all plastic bottle collection and find out if such a program would be right for your community, please go to www.allplasticbottles.org

Many environmentalists recommend avoiding vinyl products altogether.  This issue is not the focus of this article, but you can find out opposing views on the topic from Greenpeace USA and the Vinyl Institute.

Low density polyethylene usually shows up in grocery stores as the plastic bags in which you place your produce.  It is rare to see an LDPE bottle in the store because it would be too "squishy."  Neither would it have recycled content.  However, many larger grocery stores accept plastic bags for recycling.  We have investigated plastic bag recycling and found that these bags are indeed being recycled, mostly into plastic lumber.  

Your grocery store may also be recycling plastic film, which is usually made from LDPE.  This wrap is used to hold together large loads of boxes on a pallet.

Polypropylene is the best type of plastic for products that require temperature changes.  For example, it is common to see polypropylene syrup bottles since we often heat and re-heat the contents.  Polypropylene is also commonly used for yogurt cups, butter tubs, and other products that might go from being refrigerated to room temperature.  On the whole, there are very few polypropylene bottles, but there are many types of tubs or buckets.  This is why many community recycling brochures ask you to only include plastic bottles and not tubs.  (There now are HDPE and PET jars, however, such as orange juice concentrate containers and peanut butter jars, which we are told are fully compatible with HDPE and PET bottles.)

Few polypropylene bottles or tubs would have recycled content.  There are limited opportunities to recycle polypropylene tubs or jars in Minnesota.  On the bright side, polypropylene cups or tubs can be made with less material than if they were made from HDPE.  Stonyfield Farms yogurt has a special recycling program in which you can mail them back their yogurt cups and they are recycled into Recycline toothbrushes.

A small percentage of plastic containers are included in this category.  This means that the container includes a combination of other common 1-6 resins or another resin entirely.  It is unlikely that you will find recycled content in a number seven container.  Since a number 7 coded bottle is likely to be predominantly HDPE or PET, many recycling programs can accept some quantity of these bottles.  However, check with your local recycling coordinator.  

The Gerber company recently started introducing a number seven jar for baby food as a replacement for glass.  This has created some controversy in the recycling community since it will be almost impossible to recycle this container.

You can view a chart from the American Plastics Council about this coding system (including the rationale for using certain resins for certain containers) by clicking here).

Like aluminum and steel cans, most glass containers have some recycled content for the same reason--it takes less energy and expensive raw materials to make new containers from recycled feedstock.  Companies like Anchor Glass in Shakopee, Minnesota, make recycled glass containers.  In fact, much of the glass recycled in the Twin Cities metro area goes to Anchor Glass.

Glass has been losing market share to plastic for several years.  Even baby food jars have been moving to plastic in 2001.  Markets for glass containers have been poor.  End markets like Anchor Glass accept glass, but it is expensive to ship recycled glass from recycling centers, especially rural areas of Minnesota, and the revenue realized from the sale of glass is low.  As an alternative to bottle-to-bottle recycling, many counties in Minnesota save their recycled glass for use in road construction projects.  This is not the ideal use for glass, but it keeps material out of the landfill and avoids the need for more raw materials like gravel.

Lids for glass containers tend to be metal.  The metal is a contaminant in the glass making process so that is why your community recycling program asks that you remove the lids.  Anchor Glass tells us that they can recycle the lids if they do show up in the recycling process, however.  

For more information on glass containers, check out the Glass Packaging Institute's web site.

Just about anything packaged in steel uses recycled steel because steel mills need scrap steel to make new steel.  The steel can has an average of 28% recycled steel.  Steel is easy to recycle because most recycling centers sort it with magnets--virtually every recycling program in Minnesota will accept them.  You'll find steel packaging for all sorts of food at the grocery store.  The steel industry then recycles the cans into other steel products, such as cars, construction material, and new cans.

For more information about steel packaging, visit the Steel Recycling Institute's web site by clicking here.

You will usually see pop and beer in aluminum cans at the grocery store.  Aluminum cans are easily recycled and usually have recycled content of roughly 40-50%.  It also takes 95% less energy to make new cans from old cans instead of from new aluminum, so recycling cans really helps to conserve energy.  

Other aluminum products include foil, rigid containers (like a pan for baking), and some bags for products like potato chips.  Community recycling programs often do not accept foil or pans for recycling simply because foil tends to have food contamination.  Check with your local recycling coordinator to see if you can recycle them.  Aluminum foil bags are usually not recycled in community recycling programs.  For more information on aluminum, go to the Aluminum Association's web site.  St. Paul is home to a REXAM Beverage Can Americas plant, which makes new cans.  You can find out more facts on the can making process at REXAM's web site.  Once you get to the site, click on Cans & Ends and then Cans to see a Quick Time video on the can making process.

What's
that swirl
thing?