30 things you should never compost or recycle

Though recycling and composting are two of the most important green practices, there are some items that are bad for the environment. Follow these guidelines for best practices.

By Chris BaskindTue, Mar 16 2010 at 3:24 PM EST 12 Comments

LIKE OIL AND WATER: These items don't mix with recycling. (Photo: john nolan photography/Flickr)

Remember the good ol' days — back when we only had one bin for trash? In retrospect, those days were actually more wasteful than good. We sent things to the landfill that might have nourished our yards, and buried them side-by-side with materials which should have been reclaimed and put back in the production chain.

Today, most of us have two bins: one for compost, and another for recycling. They're great for reducing curbside trash, but not everything is suitable for one bin or the other.

We've rounded up 30 things people mistakenly try to compost or recycle. In the case of composting, we chose items generally avoided by experienced compost gurus. For recycling, we've picked things prohibited by most municipal sytems, or of limited use to commercial recyclers. Ready? To the bins!

NEVER COMPOST:

Bread products: This includes cakes, pasta and most baked goods. Put any of these items in your compost pile, and you've rolled out the welcome mat for unwanted pests.

Cooking oil: Smells like food to animal and insect visitors. It can also upset the compost's moisture balance.

Diseased plants: Trash them, instead. You don't want to transfer fungal or bacterial problems to whatever ends up growing in your finished compost.

Heavily coated or printed paper: This is a long list, including magazines, catalogs, printed cards and most printed or metallic wrapping paper. Foils don't break down, and you don't need a bunch of exotic printing chemicals in your compost.

Human or animal feces: Too much of a health risk. This includes kitty litter. Waste and bedding from non-carnivorous pets should be fine.

Meat products: This includes bones, blood, fish and animal fats. Another pest magnet.

Milk products: Refrain from composting milk, cheese, yogurt and cream. While they'll certainly degrade, they are attractive to pests.

Rice: Cooked rice is unusually fertile breeding ground for the kinds of bacteria you don't want in your pile. Raw rice attracts varmints.

Sawdust: So tempting. But unless you know the wood it came from was untreated, stay away.

Stubborn garden plants: Dandelions, ivy and kudzu are examples of plants or weeds which will probably regard your compost heap as a great place to grow, rather than decompose.

Used personal products: Tampons, diapers and items soiled in human blood or fluids are a health risk.

Walnuts: These contain juglone, a natural aromatic compound toxic to some plants.

It should be pointed out that there are a minority of people who compost practically everything, including items on this list. We've stuck to composting best practices, omitting things which obviously don't belong in the garden (paint, motor oil, etc.). We've also skipped disputed or iffy items, such as dryer lint and highly acidic citrus fruit.

NEVER RECYCLE

Aerosol cans: Sure, they're metal. But since spray cans also contain propellants and chemicals, most municipal systems treat them as hazardous material.

Batteries: These are generally handled separately from both regular trash and curbside recycling.

Brightly dyed paper: Strong paper dyes work just like that red sock in your white laundry.

Ceramics and pottery: This includes things such as coffee mugs. You may be able to use these in the garden.

Diapers: It is not commercially feasible to reclaim the paper and plastic in disposable diapers.

Hazardous waste: This includes household chemicals, motor oil, antifreeze and other liquid coolants. Motor oil is recyclable, but it is usually handled separately from household items. Find out how your community handles hazardous materials before you need those services.

Household glass: Window panes, mirrors, light bulbs and tableware are impractical to recycle. Bottles and jars are usually fine. Compact fluorescent lightbulbs (CFLs) are recyclable, but contain a small amount of mercury and shouldn't be treated as common household bulbs. For ideas on how to handle them, see 5 ways to dispose of old CFLs.

Juice boxes and other coated cardboard drink containers. Some manufacturers have begun producing recyclable containers. These will be specially marked. The rest are not suitable for reprocessing.

Medical waste: Syringes, tubing, scalpels and other biohazards should be disposed as such.

Napkins and paper towels: Discouraged because of what they may have absorbed. Consider composting.

Pizza boxes: Too much grease. While some compost enthusiasts steer clear of adding pizza box cardboard to their pile, others report no problems. It's that or the trash.

Plastic bags and plastic wrap: If possible, clean and reuse the bags. Make sure neither gets into the environment.

Plastic-coated boxes, plastic food boxes, or plastic without recycling marks: Dispose of safely.

Plastic screw-on tops: Dispose separately from recyclable plastic bottles. Remember that smaller caps are a choking hazard.

Styrofoam: See if your community has a special facility for this.

Tires: Many states require separate disposal of tires (and collect a fee at the point of sale for that purpose).

Tyvek shipping envelopes: These are the kind used by the post office and overnight delivery companies.

Wet paper: In general, recyclers take a pass on paper items which have been exposed to water. The fibers may be damaged, and there are contamination risks.

Your municipal recycling system gets the final say as to what belongs in your bin. Some areas will restrict more items that we've listed. Other have special programs for dealing with problematic materials. In most cases, municipal systems are happy to provide written guidelines. Wondering how to recycle something your local system won’t take? Pop over to the Earth911 website and see what is available in your area.

Photo: Texas to Mexico/Flickr

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Appreciate this post on recycling.

Posted By Erik Franz - Tue, Aug 31 2010 at 6:16 PM EST

There's a lot I've learned from just reading this article. I've started recycling plastic bottles, glass bottles, and cardboard boxes, I've even used green companies like usedcardboardboxes.com, and I really have changed my life to being more green, but I did not know you are not supposed to recycle aersol cans. So these are just thrown away without doing anything to be more sufficient?

Essential Knowledge

Posted By Anonymous - Tue, Aug 24 2010 at 4:02 PM EST

The information about some of these materials will hopefully disseminate. Foods like rice and walnuts are ones that could easily be missed. It's also good to see that some Styrofoam can be recycled. That's very good to know!

Aerosols and Tetrapaks can be recycled in UK

Posted By Karin - Fri, Jun 04 2010 at 4:27 PM EST

Some authorities in the United Kingdom will accept aerosols. We have a basket for plastic and tins and I was told to put them in there. We also have recycling points for tetrapaks, those waxy/plastic covered cardboard cartons that drinks and soup come in. They are not taken by the kerbside collection but we can drop them off in the supermarket car park. If in doubt it's best to check with your local authority.

it depends

Posted By lp - Fri, Mar 26 2010 at 10:42 AM EST

on where you live and what they will accept. thanks for the info.

Recycling shipping stuff

Posted By VBair - Thu, Mar 25 2010 at 7:47 PM EST

I give my peanuts and puffed air bags to my local florist. She says she always has people looking for packing stuff.

packing peanuts/ shipping materials

Posted By Anonymous - Sat, Mar 27 2010 at 7:32 PM EST

you can also bring those packing peanuts back to a ups/mailing store to be reused.. at least you can in the town i live in :)

thanks

Posted By leela - Fri, Mar 26 2010 at 12:23 PM EST

That is a great idea, thanks!

also double check...

Posted By critistle - Thu, Mar 25 2010 at 1:02 PM EST

I agree this is probably a good get-started-DYI but it really depends where you live. I have a rooftop garden. There is no way on earth rodents would come for cheese and meat, so I can put these scraps in my compost bin. If you’re on the ground, definitely not a good idea. Rats WILL come around, and raccoons will find a way to open your bin.

Re; double check

Posted By kmorisette - Thu, Mar 25 2010 at 1:03 PM EST

Although putting aerosol cans in a curb-side bin for recycling may not be acceptable to all recycling services, many recycling centers will take them if you bring the cans to them. The issue of aerosol can recycling can be confusing, especially since they are considered hazardous waste. Fortunately, Aerosolv is an environmentally friendly solution to this problem that many Household Hazardous Waste Facilities have implemented into their operations. The Aerosolv System is the only aerosol can.... More

clarification

Posted By Seegs - Thu, Mar 25 2010 at 1:00 PM EST

Styrofoam actually can be, just depends on how old it is. In recent years said packing material has been manufactured out of corn starch and as a result has become recyclable. This is especially true with packing peanuts.

I work in this area

Posted By Lawrence Grodeska - Thu, Mar 25 2010 at 1:04 PM EST

As someone who works at the municipal level to education the public about recycling and composting, I have two comments:

1) This type of list is useful as a general guide, but can never substitute for the information that is provided by your waste hauler or local recycling agency. Every municipality has different restrictions on what can and cannot be recycled. I would strongly encourage people to seek out this information directly from their waste company before relying on a list like.... More

opinion

Posted By Zee - Thu, Mar 25 2010 at 12:59 PM EST

Wow, very helpful information! I'm definitely sharing this with family and friends — especially those who are clueless about which things to recycle, compost or throw away! We're all trying our best to go green and being informed about these things is very important. Indeed, we should think twice before throwing things away!

30 things you should never compost or recycle

Comments

Appreciate this post on recycling.

Essential Knowledge

Aerosols and Tetrapaks can be recycled in UK

it depends

Recycling shipping stuff

packing peanuts/ shipping materials

thanks

also double check...

Re; double check

clarification

I work in this area

opinion

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