Unsure how to throw out old milk cartons? You're not alone

Officials at Island Waste Management sayconfusion over how to recycle paper milk cartons continues to cost them time and money.

Heather Myers, disposal manager with Island Waste Management, saidthe paper cartons are often mistakenly put in blue bag number oneor the compost stream. But Myers said milk cartonsshould be rinsed out and put into blue bag number two.

Blue bag number one is meant for cardboard and paper products, while blue bag number two is designated for metals, plastic, glass, as well asmilk and juice cartons.

Myers said when milk cartons are put into the wrong blue bag, it takes time to manually sort through those items and put them into the right spot.When they're put into the compost, Myers added, chances are they end up as waste.

"If they end up in the compost stream, they go through composting process, it does take a long time for them to break downbecause of plastic lining to keep them moisture proof.

"So they end up getting screened out at the end of the composting process and then they end up going into waste."

Cardboard products also causing confusion

Myers saidanything that comes in a Tetra Pak whether it is milk, sugaror molasses should be rinsed out and put into blue bag number two.

Myers believes the confusion may stem fromthe early days of recycling, when paper cartons were supposed to go into the compost and that's what people got used to.

She said other items, specifically those made from corrugated cardboard like pizza boxes,are also often mistakenly thrown away.

"Corrugated cardboard has the two flat layers with the wavy layer in the centre. That is recyclable, even if the pizza box has a little bit of agrease stain on it, as long as the food waste is dumped out of the box and into the compost the box itselfcan be recycled," Myers said.

She said those cardboard products should be bundled and put out to the curb beside blue bags number one and two for collection.

Myers saidboxboard, such as cereal or tissue boxes, should go in the compost stream.

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