By Serene Feteih
The recycling process is not as simple as it may seem. It’s not about throwing all recyclable materials in a bag and expecting a company to categorize it for you. Most people may think they know all they need to know about recycling. But here are some surprising things you can’t recycle.
1. Pizza Boxes
Yes, they’re made of cardboard, but they’re also tainted with sticky cheese, tomato sauce and grease.
2. Wet Paper
It’s less valuable to paper recyclers because the soaked paper fibers are shorter.
3. Plastic Bags Full Of Random Trash Or More Plastic Bags
Workers cannot open plastic bags to check what’s inside, so they get trashed. Instead, reuse these plastic bags at home for your wastebaskets.
4. Wire Hangers
Jeddah doesn’t have any recycling centers that handle wires, so just reuse them in your closet or better yet, take them back to the dry cleaners for reuse.
5. Paper Napkins Or Towels
Like used pizza boxes, food contamination often puts this material off the recycle list. Try to use wash cloths instead of generating mountains of paper waste.
6. Styrofoam
It’s highly flammable and is dangerous to most recycling centers. Avoid throwing this in any recycling bin.
