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Katie Okamoto is an editor focused on the environment. She has covered the intersection of products and sustainability for more than a decade. Small Spray Foam Machine
So many of us have been there: guiltily wondering what to do with piles of plastic bubble wrapping, air pillows, or peanuts from a package.
How do you responsibly dispose of this junk?
This is something we really care about here at Wirecutter. After all, many of the items we test and recommend are purchased by our readers online then shipped all over the country.
Unfortunately, most packaging (by design) can’t be recycled. And if you throw it into a curbside bin, it’ll likely end up polluting another part of the world.
However, smart strategies can help ensure that what you do put into the recycling bin has the best chance of being recycled.
Keep in mind that when it comes to shopping, packaging contributes a smaller amount to global carbon emissions than transportation (shipping, delivery, and travel to and from the store).
So if you want to reduce the environmental effects from buying stuff, you’ll have the most impact by adjusting how you shop, including shopping less, buying secondhand, and opting for slower, grouped deliveries.
That said, packaging from shopping adds up to more than a quarter of all municipal solid waste in the United States, according to the EPA, and consumes a considerable amount of resources, including fossil fuels.
Here’s what to sort for curbside pickup and other recycling programs and what to throw in the trash.
Unless you can find a use for them in your home, it’s actually more responsible to throw away plastics that can’t be accepted curbside than to put it in the recycling bin and say a prayer.
The majority of global plastic production goes into packaging, but only some of that can be recycled. Depending on where you live, most plastic packaging won’t be recyclable in your curbside bin—and as our colleagues at The New York Times’s Climate desk have reported, you can’t assume that anything with a recyclable symbol will be accepted by your local system.
Wishcycling, or putting stuff in your curbside bin that can’t actually be recycled that way, can gunk up the works at already overtaxed recycling centers.
Check with your local recycling collector, which will typically list the number for hard plastics that you can put in your bin and what you can’t.
To dispose of other plastics, you may have additional local options. The EPA recommends Earth911 to locate drop-off and pickup options outside your curbside program.
Recycling paper and cardboard has environmental costs (from transporting and distributing them, as well as the reclamation process), but the materials are more likely to be recycled than plastic.
Most paper and cardboard used in shipping can go into your recycling bin for local pickup, with a few exceptions.
Most recycling facilities can handle a little extra tape on boxes (the EPA even says envelopes with plastic windows are okay), but remove as much adhesive plastic—tape, shipping labels, label holders—as you can when you break them down to put in your bin. (Throw away the tape.)
Although shredded paper is recyclable, it loses recycling value, and some curbside programs don’t accept it. Local recycling programs have different rules for shredded paper: For example, some will ask you to put it in a paper bag, some a clear plastic bag, and others don’t accept it at all.
Unfortunately, paper items with coatings can’t be recycled. If you want to delay their trip to the landfill, you can try to reuse them.
Some products may come in cardboard boxes with additional materials affixed inside with adhesives, like molded plastic or Styrofoam. If you want to recycle these boxes, you must remove the other materials first.
If something is technically recyclable but your curbside program doesn’t accept it, it’s better for recycling programs if you throw it away than to put it in your bin and hope for the best.
But curbside isn’t the only recycling and reusing option. Some programs, like the Pacific Northwest–based Ridwell, offer a subscription service for less commonly recyclable items. The EPA recommends Earth911 to explore local pickup and drop-off options such as a mail center, municipal waste drop-off center, or donation programs.
Keep in mind that a car trip to a far flung donation center may spend more in carbon emissions than just putting that bag of busted zip-ties in the garbage. You have to pick your battles.
Here are some common materials that are typically not accepted by curbside but may be eligible for specialty recycling or reclamation near you.
Even if plastic-like packaging is labeled compostable, check with your local composting programs to see if they will accept it. If not, you should simply throw it away, rather than put it in curbside recycling, even if it resembles plastic. Don’t put it in your compost pile.
Neither Styrofoam nor biodegradable plant-starch packing peanuts are recyclable through most curbside programs. You may be able to find a local drop-off center that accepts soft plastic films, Styrofoams, and their biodegradable replacements.
If you do end up throwing packing peanuts away, secure them inside another bag (ideally one already headed for the trash), since they’re lightweight, easily wind-borne, and prone to scattering.
Whether plastic or biodegradable, most soft plastic-like materials likely cannot be recycled in your curbside bin. You can search for local drop-off centers, such as some UPS stores, or pickup programs. Otherwise, throw it away.
You may be able to find donation centers for rubber bands if you have enough of them. But your best bet is to use them around the home, garden, office, or craft drawer as much as you can.
Everything not mentioned above should go in the trash if you can’t find another use for it in your own home, workplace, or craft closet.
Realistically, most of us won’t find a good reason to reuse the disposable packaging that comes with an online order, but if you can find even one more use for it, it will significantly reduce the carbon impact of that packaging.
If you feel bad about that, remember that no matter the packaging material—plastic, paper and cardboard, or other plant starch composites—recycling, for now, even at its best, still produces landfill-bound waste and pollution, and won’t solve the multiple environmental crises caused by disposable consumerism on its own.
All the more reason to try to shop more mindfully and, when you do buy, give companies feedback to reduce overpackaging.
This article was edited by Christine Cyr Clisset.
Winston Choi-Schagrin and Hiroko Tabuchi, Trash or Recycling? Why Plastic Keeps Us Guessing., The New York Times, April 21, 2022
Leslie Kaufman, The Warehouses of Plastic Behind TerraCycle’s Recycling Dream, Bloomberg, October 31, 2022
Somini Sengupta, Guess What? More Plastic Trash., The New York Times, February 7, 2023
Containers and Packaging: Product-Specific Data, US Environmental Protection Agency, December 3, 2022
Laura Sullivan, How Big Oil Misled The Public Into Believing Plastic Would Be Recycled, NPR, September 11, 2020
Hiroko Tabuchi and Michael Corkery, Countries Tried to Curb Trade in Plastic Waste. The U.S. Is Shipping More., The New York Times, March 12, 2021
Tatiana Sokolova, Aradhna Krishna, Tim Döring, Paper Meets Plastic: The Perceived Environmental Friendliness of Product Packaging, Journal of Consumer Research, January 28, 2023
Sadegh Shahmohammadi et al., Comparative Greenhouse Gas Footprinting of Online versus Traditional Shopping for Fast-Moving Consumer Goods: A Stochastic Approach, Environmental Science and Technology, February 26, 2020
Roland Geyer, Jenna R. Jambeck, and Kara Lavender Law, Production, use, and fate of all plastics ever made, Science Advances, July 19, 2017
Roi Peretz et al., Making Cardboard and Paper Recycling More Sustainable: Recycled Paper Sludge For Energy Production and Water-Treatment Applications, Waste and Biomass Valorization, June 15, 2020
Aneta Lipkiewicz et al., Impact of shredding degree on papermaking potential of recycled waste, Scientific Reports, September 1, 2021
Valentina Beghetto et al., Recent Advancements in Plastic Packaging Recycling: A Mini-Review, Materials, August 24, 2021
Katie Okamoto is a writer and the editor of sustainability coverage at Wirecutter. She has been covering food and design products and their intersections with environment and health issues for more than a decade. Katie has also worked in design and sustainability, and she holds a bachelor’s in environmental studies, a master’s in architecture, and a professional certificate in life cycle assessment.
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