A Guide to Recycling Packing Materials
A Guide to Recycling Packing Materials
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Getting packages shipped to your home creates all kinds of special types of packaging waste. How much of this stuff can be recycled? Some items are easier than others. Here’s a helpful guide to recycling packing materials.
Boxes
Cardboard boxes are the most straightforward. Break them down (flatten) and recycle them with paper products. Be sure to keep them clean and dry. Moldy, greasy or food-stained cardboard should not be recycled. Any cardboard or paperboard that seems to be lined with a plastic-y substance (like a frozen food box) should also not be recycled. Click here for more info on cardboard recycling.
Shipping Bags or Envelopes
Paper envelopes can be recycled with paper if they are not plastic lined. Plastic envelopes and bubble mailers should be recyclable with plastic film at special drop-off locations if they are plastic only (not mixed materials). Shipping envelopes that are paper with a plastic bubble wrap lining or any other type of mixed materials should not be recycled. Click here for more info on how to recycle plastic mailers and shipping bags.
Air Pillows and Bubble Wrap
These types of packing materials are plastic film and can SOMETIMES be recycled with plastic grocery bags and other types of plastic film at drop-off locations that take them. Check the drop-off bin for a list of acceptable plastic film types. Click here for more info on recycling plastic film and bubble wrap.
Packing Peanuts and Foam Blocks
Packing peanuts and foam blocks are made of polystyrene (aka Styrofoam), which is tough to recycle because it’s mostly made of air and can’t be recycled into the more valuable plastics manufacturers want. A few communities do have options for recycling polystyrene, but most don’t. But some companies that do a lot of shipping may accept packing peanuts for reuse. Click here for more info on recycling Styrofoam. Or see below for info on recycling through TerraCycle.
Paper Stuffing, Cartons or Blocks
Any paper that is in whole sheets and simply crumpled up in the box to buffer and protect your package should be fine for recycling with other paper. The same goes for honeycomb cardboard packaging, paper cartons and pulp blocks that are used to stabilize and protect your shipment inside the box, as long as all these items are made of paper and paper pulp only. If they are mixed materials, for instance if they seem to have a plastic or metal lining, they should not be recycled unless you can completely separate the materials from each other.
Shredded Paper
If you have packing paper that’s shredded or in small pieces, that’s a problem. Shredded paper is a tangler and is very difficult to separate from other materials so it should generally NOT be included in your paper recycling. An exception might be if you have a bin that is dedicated for paper only and it’s not going to get mixed in with other materials like metal, glass, plastic, etc. If that is the case, you MIGHT be able to include shredded paper in your recycling with other paper types, but check the rules. Like packing peanuts, shipping companies might take shredded paper for reuse, or you could compost it. Click here for more info on recycling shredded paper.
Recycling Other Types of Packaging
If you have other types of more unusual specialized packaging materials from a service like Amazon Grocery Delivery, Amazon has a list of disposal/recycling instructions for insulated packaging, dry ice packs and other items.
When in doubt, if you can’t tell what a packaging is made of, or if it is made from more than one type of material and you cannot separate them, then unfortunately it is probably not recyclable.
Some Packing Items Can Be Recycled Through TerraCycle
For stretch wrap, bubble wrap, packing foam, shipping peanuts, bubble wrap, air cushions and tape dispensers, you could purchase a TerraCycle Mailing, Shipping and Packaging Supplies Zero Waste Box. Once full, you ship back to TerraCycle for recycling.
Why not donate your packing materials?
If you have a bunch of leftover boxes, bubble wrap, mailers or other packing materials, there are plenty of people who would love to have them. You can post it on BoxGiver, which helps people with extra packing materials find others who can use them. But I find that an even easier, more local option is to post it on your local “Buy Nothing” group where people give away items they no longer need. Where I live, almost anything offered up on the list gets snapped up immediately, so give it a try!
For more helpful recycling tips, visit the Recycling Tips Page.
You made a good point that it’s important to also consider how clean the materials would be when planning to get cardboard recycling services. I might need to look into that because I’m thinking about opening a grocery business soon. Being able to get properly dispose of packaging materials would be a good idea.