Apr
18
2010
can i recycle shredded plastic or shredded aluminum?
Posted by admin in Question & Answers, tags: aluminum, plastic, Recycle, shreddedas a crafter, i make stuff with almost anything, i make candle holders and ash trays with aluminum cans and i make beads with plastic bottles, i am also planning on making fast food napkins, and turn it into yarn and turn magazine paper into beads.
can i take the leftover scraps after my crafting and put them in the recycling bin?
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Yes you can, but it can only be paper,plastic,and glass. Hope i helped!!!!!!!
Your recycling system should be able to recycle soda can aluminum whether it is in the shape of a can or in shreds; plastic bottle plastic whether it is in the shape of a bottle or in shreds; mixed paper whether it is still in the form of a piece of paper or cut-outs from making paper snow flakes – IF, and only if, it already accepts these items.
Do realize that somewhere along the line, the people who handle, transport, and sort within your recycling system may call into question your shreds if they cannot readily identify them. The can shreds and mixed paper are probably reasonably recognizable. The plastic container shreds may not be as easily identifiable as being of the “correct” plastic. If your system requires you to pre-sort it may not be as much of a problem.
The other issues deals with how your system handles recyclables. For example, many curb-side systems do not recycle glass because the glass breaks and causes worker injury problems; others have systems in place that minimizes this potential so they do collect curb-side glass but not industrial mixed recyclable dumpsters. The same is true of many systems that collect in mixed bins of any type. A mixed bin is one that you dump all of your “dry” recyclables into and somewhere after collection, machinery and/or people manually sort the materials. Your paper scraps may be better placed inside of a paper bag or mixed paper type of cardboard box (boxed dinner and cereal type boxes) before being placed into your curb-side bins. Your aluminum can scraps may be ruled out all together; they will let you know. Your plastic scraps may be best collected in a a 2L type of soda bottle that is cut 3/4 of the way around so that a hinge is formed for stuffing and then closing.
Or, you may find that if you are fully eco-minded that you will need to collect some of your material scraps for transport to a facility that will/can handle them. Like all things in a “green practice” equation, there is a cost and a benefit to virtually everything we do. Driving 60 miles one way, out of your way, once a week to recycle your shavings probably doesn’t make ecological sense. Driving a shorter distance more often when/as quantity builds up can make sense; pairing with another driving chore makes even more sense. If you are truly 60 miles away from a facility, then once a year or so with true quantity while pairing it with an entertainment or business trip and a strong environmental commitment is required.
As long as it is not mixed together in other words your shredded plastic is all one specific type of plastic say all hdpe (# 2) then there is no problem, and no even less of a problem with the aluminum
Marcia did a great job of answering but to put it shorter:
If you have a large volume of anything that is sorted out; it can be recycled. If you have small volumes or it isn’t sorted it likely isn’t economical.
Aluminum is aluminum but I’d talk to a recycling center to see how they would want it contained seeing as it’s shredded. Same goes for the plastic, however, with plastic it’s important to pay attention to the numbers on the plastic. Look for the chasing arrows with numbers in them and keep those numbers separate. If the plastic is mixed it cant be used and they’ll just toss it in the trash.
If you like to craft, you will LOVE this! :) One of my little sister’s teacher loves to make things out of recycled materials. Also it’s super fun to dumper dive :) I personally prefer going into Recycling dumpsters instead. But as I learned from her, if you want to take say like lamenated scraps or old plastic shopping bags or even the plastic that you hold your daily newspaper in, you can put them together, place some colorful strips of recycled paper inbetween the two plastics. So right now you should have scraps of cool colorful paper or things from magazines or such inbetween some recycled plastic. Then you should have a towel on the very bottom so you won’t scorch anything, then some aluminum foil on top of the towl. Place the plastic creation on the aluminum and over the top with more aluminum foil (be sure to cover it all). Then take a hot iron (like a clothing iron) and just roll over it a while until the plastic melts. Leave it to cool for a while so that the aluminum foil comes off. When it’s finally cool, peel off the aluminum and create something! I’ve learned how to make wallets, or even like bags you can take for groceries or just cool messenger bags! Play around with the idea and tell me what you think of it :) Hope this helps!