46 replies to this topic

[anEgrahm]

Do you guys ever consider recycling a part of fast food or takeaway containers? My relatives have gotten into the habit of recycling the lid, and I'm not saying it's a bad thing, but it is definitely thinking out of the square in one way.

They would take off the top of any pizza boxes, or anything of that kind of sort. In general, anything that wasn't covered in food or oils, and was in recyclable or reusable condition.

What are your thoughts on this?

[eds]

 FatKids.jpeg   50.55K   2 downloads
The only "Fast Food" I buy, is a small Healthy "Subway" every day.
. . . Wheat bread, a little meat, no cheese, not toasted,
. . . then load it up with veg's, no dressing.(no chips, no tonic)
. . . wrapped up in paper, with a paper napkin and a paper receipt.

I re-cycle my trash every week,
But I'm NOT a fanatic about it,
. . . when there is so very little paper involved with this "Fast Food,"
. . . so I just toss it in the trash.
What is more important is my cholesterol, blood sugar and triglycerides levels
. . . have dropped and I have lost 45 lbs. so far.

[msdstnctv]

I have never thought about recycling our fast food containers. Our city participates in a recycling program, so I guess from now on, I'll recycle those items that are recyclable. Thanks for bringing this up!

[zararina]

I think it was always a good thing to recycle whatever and whenever possible since it means less garbage and that was certainly good for the environment and for our future.
I seldom eat on fast food or in a restaurant, and usually it was plate that I been using there so I could not take that home.

[Runi1024]

I have never thought about this. I know there are a lot of people who will buy at the supermarket (I know this isn't fast food) things like Deli in a plastic container and when they use it all up with wash and reuse the container for other things.  For my I have been buying my sugar in a bag, this way the first time I bought it i got a plastic container and every time we need more we buy the recyclable bagged sugar to refill the container.

Every little bit helps :)

[jasserEnv]

I also recycle the cardboard that is not soiled from food containers. The parts that are soiled go into the compost and not the garbage. To me, it just made sense. At work they attempted to go with recycled cellulose containers for a while but that didn't last due to the costs of these containers. I much preferred them to the polystyrene one that cannot be even recycled.

[omkar1991]

We usually get take away orders in plastic containers, which we wash after use, and re use it for storing other stuff, like salt, or other commodities. As for paper wrappings, it goes the same way as regular paper does. The authorities have really got a lot of restrictions on plastic usage, so the usage of plastic bags and wrappings has greatly decreased.

[MakingCents]

we always recycle the cardboard pizza boxes, but I could do better.  Pretty much every box McDonalds uses now is recylceable so I should probably start doing that too.

[Jessi]

Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.

I do put the pizza box cardboard in the recycling bin. A lot of the fast food takeaway containers I've gotten in the past, though, are made of styrofoam and there's really not much to do with that. I don't eat out very often and I rarely bring home food so I don't think I'm contributing as much waste as others, but I still do what I can to recycle it when I can.

[mariaandrea]

Because I have 2 young adults in the house, we end up with pizza boxes regularly. And, my son works in a grocery store deli, so we also end up with those coated cardboard takeaway containers. But, the really, really awesome thing about Seattle is that soiled cardboard food containers, like greasy pizza boxes, can be put in the yard waste bin where it goes and gets composted! How cool is that?!

[brihooter]

I think any type of recycling is good.  We just end up using it again later and I think that's a great idea.  That is awesome Maria that they do that in Seattle.  We don't do that where I live.  I wish we did though, that would be great!!

[Jessi]

mariaandrea, on 26 January 2012 - 11:05 PM, said:

Because I have 2 young adults in the house, we end up with pizza boxes regularly. And, my son works in a grocery store deli, so we also end up with those coated cardboard takeaway containers. But, the really, really awesome thing about Seattle is that soiled cardboard food containers, like greasy pizza boxes, can be put in the yard waste bin where it goes and gets composted! How cool is that?!

Seriously?? Did they send you a letter or announce it some way to let you know to put the soiled ones in with yard waste? I wonder if other places would accept it that way and we just don't know it?

[artistry]

It makes very good sense to recycle whatever you can, whenever you can. Doing this helps to lessen the amount of trash which is accumulating all over. It saves money and provides for future products. Great information.

[MakingCents]

That is pretty cool about the dirty cardboard being able to go into the yard waste bags.  I mean it will eventually decompose in the landfill anyway but being put into a compost pile means it will be re-used again for good.  If it can't be recycled that's the next best thing!

[mariaandrea]

Jessi, on 27 January 2012 - 07:26 PM, said:

Seriously?? Did they send you a letter or announce it some way to let you know to put the soiled ones in with yard waste? I wonder if other places would accept it that way and we just don't know it?

Seattle Utilities sends out a periodic newsletter to customers and I'm pretty sure it was in there when they started doing that. It's been awhile so I don't remember exactly. The dumpsters at our apartment building have big signs on them with pictures showing exactly what you can put in them, but the yard waste bin doesn't. But, I went to the website and printed out a flyer they have for customers showing what you can recycle and I've kept it posted on the refrigerator for years so we would remember. It was really helpful when the kids were younger. I think a lot of utility companies have flyers, or at least lists, like that on their websites for customers. I think if Seattle can compost soiled food containers, a lot of other places could too. I do hope it catches on.

[MakingCents]

Our trash company also sends a flier every quarter that states whan can and connot be recycled.  I wish more poeple would read it.  Our city reclyes plastics 1-7 (basically if it holds a liquid it recycles, most people don't realize that and throw out everything but water bottles.

[jasserEnv]

It would also help if governments legislated out plastic types 3 and 7 to start with. You can't really recycle the PVCs (3) and they aren't that safe as a plastic. Type 7 is essentially the garbage mix of whatever plastics and can't really be recycled at all. Also minimizing the use of polypropylene (5) and low density polyethylene (4) would be good because these plastics are also difficult to recycle and are usually used for downcycling instead where each time they are used, they are used for less valuable purposes. If we had only types 1,2 and 6, it would be much easier to just recycle it all, but this is an ongoing fight with the plastics industry.

[brihooter]

That is so cool Maria.  I wish we had that where I live.  I'm trying to teach my children the importance of recycling right now.  They have been doing really well.  They know which items goes in the trash and which don't!

[mariaandrea]

You know, if anyone has a yard and a compost pile, shredding soiled food containers and adding them to the compost pile seems like a viable option. Newspaper and other papers can be added to compost, so why not carboard? I don't have a yard or a compost pile any more (not for years) so I don't really know how well it would work, but it's a thought...

[Runi1024]

I was in shock! Today I came home from the University to find that one of my roommates instead of throwing out the food and washing the Tupperware container she had just thrown the entire thing out! When its a container than came with the food and she throws it out I don't care but these were the nice ones that we had bought! And they really weren't cheap!

How can people be so careless?