# Why doesn't my recycler accept cereal boxes? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 12, 2019, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-recycler-accept-cereal-boxes/836941 "2019-07-12T00:57:41Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-recycler-accept-cereal-boxes/836941/21 "2019-07-13T03:13:11Z")
> [@Mallard](#): > > Our recycling takes cereal boxes but no longer takes single use glass bottles or plastic bags. Our recycling doesn’t take plastic shopping bags, supposedly because they shred and clog up the machinery. The local supermarkets collect plastic shopping bags and do heaven knows what with them. I think they can be melted down and recycled. Can’t imagine not taking glass bottles though, if they’ve been rinsed out. Glass is a perfect recyclable material. Risk of breakage injuring the workers, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-recycler-accept-cereal-boxes/836941/22 "2019-07-13T03:29:24Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > OK, I found out why recyclers may not accept aluminum foil. [Here](https://livegreen.recyclebank.com/column/because-you-asked/is-aluminum-foil-recyclable), they say it’s because the food residue on foil could contaminate other recyclables. OK, that’s understandable, although it’s another reason not to combine all the recyclables in one bin. Single stream recyclers won’t accept them any other way. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 3:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-recycler-accept-cereal-boxes/836941/23 "2019-07-13T03:40:47Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Our recycling doesn’t take plastic shopping bags, supposedly because they shred and clog up the machinery. The local supermarkets collect plastic shopping bags and do heaven knows what with them. I think they can be melted down and recycled. I suspect you may live in the same area I do, since that’s the rules here. And it’s not just plastic shopping bags, but any plastic bags. They gum up the sorting machinery. Of course they wouldn’t need that sorting machinery if they weren’t… > [@Fear\_Itself](#): > > Single stream recyclers won’t accept them any other way. We didn’t use to have single stream recycling and I’m not sure it was a good thing to go to it. Yes, more people recycle when they don’t have to sort their stuff, but I expect most of those additional people aren’t very careful about keeping non-recyclable stuff out of the recycling bins. I don’t think it’s a net gain to do single stream. No doubt someone has figures to support it, but I’m dubious. As far as recycling plastic (bags or otherwise), it really doesn’t recycle very well at all. There’s various chemicals added to the resins that changes their properties. and that stuff can’t be easily removed. So there’s limits to what they can make with recycled plastic. ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-recycler-accept-cereal-boxes/836941/24 "2019-07-13T04:19:33Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Can’t imagine not taking glass bottles though, if they’ve been rinsed out. Glass is a perfect recyclable material. Risk of breakage injuring the workers, perhaps? Yes, it is perfectly recyclable once it has been sorted by color and type. But it needs to be perfectly sorted because even a little bit of the wrong type or color can ruin a whole batch. With single-stream recycling, which most municipal systems now use, the glass gets broken in the collection/sorting process. The little pieces of glass get embedded in other materials and ruin them or damage machinery. And even the little glass pieces that are sorted out cannot be accurately sorted by color and type. The salvaged glass can be used in fiberglass plants if there happens to be one nearby but most of it is either landfilled or ground into a sand-like powder which is used for things like roadbed filler or sandblasting in place of sand. And sand is very cheap, meaning that the ground glass has very little economic value. In fact, recycling facilities have to pay to have someone haul away their glass. Many recycling program operators would like to stop accepting glass, but the glass packaging industry has so indoctrinated the general public that they face major protests and are pressured into resuming. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 4:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-recycler-accept-cereal-boxes/836941/25 "2019-07-13T04:29:21Z")
Notice how the box is shiny? That is a layer of clay which renders the box unrecyclable. Glossy magazine pages, for the same reason. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-recycler-accept-cereal-boxes/836941/26 "2019-07-13T04:41:08Z")
But the OP provided a list of what is and is not recyclable, and magazines are recyclable. ---
**Author:** ![Enola\_Straight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/dec6dc/32.png) [@Enola\_Straight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Enola_Straight)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-recycler-accept-cereal-boxes/836941/27 "2019-07-13T14:39:21Z")
My neck of the woods, they aren’t. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2019, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-recycler-accept-cereal-boxes/836941/28 "2019-07-13T16:38:10Z")
Coatings and ink can’t be a problem if they accept magazines. That leaves fiber quality. Can’t such stuff be used for toilet paper and such? I.e., things where you don’t need much structural integrity. In fact, it’s a plus. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [July 18, 2019, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-recycler-accept-cereal-boxes/836941/29 "2019-07-18T22:58:44Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Our recycling doesn’t take plastic shopping bags, supposedly because they shred and clog up the machinery. The local supermarkets collect plastic shopping bags and do heaven knows what with them. I think they can be melted down and recycled. > > Can’t imagine not taking glass bottles though, if they’ve been rinsed out. Glass is a perfect recyclable material. Risk of breakage injuring the workers, perhaps? Our recycling center stopped taking glass too. But now they’ll take it again, if you separate it from the other stuff and throw it into a dumpster along side the main building. I feel like the explanation I was given back when they stopped taking it was that it weighed too much. Weight is one of the two reasons listed [in this article](https://livegreen.recyclebank.com/column/because-you-asked/why-is-my-hauler-no-longer-recycling-glass), and we do have single stream here. They’ve never taken plastic bags, for the same reason you state. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [July 19, 2019, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-recycler-accept-cereal-boxes/836941/30 "2019-07-19T03:13:10Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Our recycling doesn’t take plastic shopping bags, supposedly because they shred and clog up the machinery. The local supermarkets collect plastic shopping bags and do heaven knows what with them. I think they can be melted down and recycled. > > Can’t imagine not taking glass bottles though, if they’ve been rinsed out. Glass is a perfect recyclable material. Risk of breakage injuring the workers, perhaps? I take my plastic shopping bags to thrift stores or large garage sales for reuse, and smaller plastic bags to go the animal shelter because they use them for animal poop. ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-recycler-accept-cereal-boxes/836941/31 "2019-07-20T18:30:11Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > No, “cardboard” is the stuff cereal boxes are made of. Or, you know, the stuff cards are made of. > > Corrugated “cardboard” isn’t even cardboard at all, just thick paper, folded up and glued together in a particular way. I was curious so I googled a bit and it looks like previous poster was correct according to various industry websites. Paperboard is what is used for cereal boxes and those type of thin packaging, cardboard is the multi-layer stuff, although one site did say that cardboard is a more general term and that paperboard used in cereal boxes is a subset of cardboard. ---
**Author:** ![eastcheap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8491ac/32.png) [@eastcheap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eastcheap)\ **Post date:** [July 20, 2019, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-recycler-accept-cereal-boxes/836941/32 "2019-07-20T20:49:16Z")
> [@RaftPeople](#): > > Paperboard is what is used for cereal boxes and those type of thin packaging, cardboard is the multi-layer stuff “Corrugated fiberboard” is the pedantic term for the stuff shipping boxes and the like are made from (corrugated paper sandwiched between card stock). My understanding is that the paperboard used for food containers and the like (some of us grouchy old-timers still call it pasteboard) is of such low quality — being made from waste paper, recycled content, low-grade pulp…scraps, basically — that it’s not really fit for recycling. ---
**Author:** ![Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/96bed5/32.png) [@Patty\_O\_Furniture](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Patty_O_Furniture)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2019, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-recycler-accept-cereal-boxes/836941/33 "2019-07-21T03:37:09Z")
Related: [Why The United States Is Turning To Recycling Robots](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1mxaN_xqQh4) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-doesnt-my-recycler-accept-cereal-boxes/836941.md?page=1)