The recycling process involves turning waste materials into new products. This helps conserve the earth’s natural resources, including oil, gas, minerals, and trees. It also reduces pollution from hazardous waste materials and limits the need for landfill space. Materials that can be recycled include iron and steel scrap, aluminum cans, glass bottles, paper, wood, and plastics. Recycling these materials helps save energy and reduces the need for mining, reducing environmental contamination and resource extraction.
Most items are recyclable, but certain items should not be placed in the recycling bin. For example, a carton with a plastic lining — used for soy or nut milk, soup stock, and juice — may feel like paper but belongs in the metals, paper, and plastics bin, and rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (found in smoke detectors, power tools, cellphone headsets) should be handled as hazardous waste and not thrown away or put into the recycling.
Educating yourself and your family about Recycling is key to the success of our community’s program. There are many resources to help teach kids about the three R’s: reduce, reuse, and recycle. Reducing waste is the most important step, and this can be done by avoiding disposable items and reusing or repairing items instead of replacing them.
For Yale, most materials are collected through single-stream recycling, which means that all rigid plastics, metals, and paper and cardboard go in one bin, along with glass, cans, and jars. It is best to leave items unbagged, as bags can get caught in the machines.