March 3, 2025
Plastics: The Bane of Recycling
Recycling metal, paper, glass, and plastic saves water, energy, time — the list goes on. For me, recycling is as automatic as tossing something in the trash. I always try to avoid throwing things away. By this point, I’ve probably accumulated hours of staring at empty cans or plastic containers trying to decide if I can recycle them or not.
Generally, it’s obvious what has to go in the trash and what I can actually put in the recycling. Tin cans go in the recycle bin; plastic cling wrap goes in the trash. The cardboard from a box of pasta goes in the recycle bin, but the plastic windows from the container have to go in the trash. However, some things just aren’t this clear.
Most things that I’m unsure where to dispose of are plastic. When in doubt, I’ve held to the rule that if the object in question has the recycling symbol on it then it must be recyclable. I’m sure I’m not the only person in the world to make this assumption. However, recently I’ve come to understand that while this may be technically true, there are some definite exceptions.
Most plastics have a recycling symbol on them, a triangle made up of arrows, and in the center of the symbols there’s a number — 1 through 7. Until recently, though, I knew these numbers impacted the recyclability of plastics, but I thought it was simply the higher the number the harder the plastic is to recycle. Which isn’t totally off. However, different areas are only equipped to recycle certain plastics.
Basically, objects with the numbers 1 or 2 are almost always accepted for curbside recycling and sometimes 5 as well. We can still recycle some other types of plastic; we just have to be a bit more creative. For instance, gathering up plastic bags — even the ones from inside cereal boxes — and taking them to a drop-off point at a grocery store. To help you find more information, here are the recycling guides for Green Bay, Manitowoc, and Sheboygan and some guidelines for all of Wisconsin.