Recycling juice cartons, and glass with metal rings

November 14, 2003

Dear Marti,
Can you recycle foil-lined juice boxes and soy milk boxes? I called my hauler and they said you couldn't, but I didn't see that in the guidelines. What does Eco-Cycle say? If they are recyclable, do I have to take the plastic tab off?

Signed,
T. Z.

Dear T.Z.,

Amended April 2006: No, foil-lined boxes cannot be recycled. These juice, soup, beverage, and other food cartons have a foil lining on the inside, a plastic polymer lining on the outside, and paper on the inside. These layers cannot be effectively separated for recycling.

I've received a few letters and calls with this question, and I'm not sure where the confusion comes from, but speaking for Eco-Cycle (I think that's what they pay me to do), Eco-Cycle says yes, you can recycle them. You'll find that many juice and beverage cartons have that foil lining on the inside. They also have a plastic polymer lining on the outside. It's good to keep in mind that they are recyclable because we'll all be seeing more and more types of products packaged in these kinds of boxes. Manufacturers are using these boxes with increasing frequency because the amalgamation of materials preserves the contents, making it unnecessary for the product to be shipped in a refrigerated truck or stored in the refrigerated section of the grocery store, and it spares the energy required for refrigeration.

Because these types of boxes have so much valuable, clean, white fiber on the inside (which you can see when you rip the box), the polymer spray on the outside and the foil lining on the inside do not render the boxes unrecyclable. In fact, the aluminum in the inside is actually recovered as well.

Don't worry about the plastic tab. It will come out in the wash when the fiber is forced through screens to remove any contamination.

Dear Marti,
Can you recycle bottles with a metal ring around the neck? I usually try to cut them off before I recycle them, but it's hard to do.
Signed,
Joyce

Dear Joyce,

Put those sharp knives and scissors down! There's no reason to risk slicing into your hand for the sake of recycling (though we appreciate the dedication). If you can easily take a piece of metal off the glass bottle (such as the metal wrapping around the necks of wine bottles), then we do ask you to remove it before you toss it in the recycling bin (tossing gently to avoid breakage, of course). But once the task requires you to start fishing for sharp objects in the kitchen drawer, you can stop right there because metal neck rings for glass bottles do get removed from glass bottles at the glass recycling plant.

I recently saw this process in action, actually. Once at the plant, color-separated glass gets crushed, shattering the glass that's inside the ring of metal. Metal rings made of steel and other ferrous metals can then be lifted out by a magnet. Aluminum is sorted out with what's called an eddy-current, the same technology that is used here at our recycling center.

So remove what metal you can, but otherwise, let's not have any unnecessary trips to the emergency room.