Junk King and North Shore Recycling Make Recycling Easier

One of the most common questions that we get at Junk King North Shore is, “what’s the point of recycling anyway?” That’s a great question but one that needs to be unpacked because it has so many layers.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said in 2018 that only about 32 percent of eligible materials get recycled. That number, sadly, is down from 34 percent three years prior, in 2015.

Junk King North Shore is committed to recycling and guaranteeing that more valuable resources are kept in circulation and harmful materials stay out of landfills.

Although nine-tenths of solid waste doesn’t get recycled in the United States and the approximately 2,000 landfills from coast to coast are getting more overcrowded, at Junk King, we realize that more can always be done.

Nine out of ten people say that they would recycle if it were easier to do. Junk King and North Shore recycling want to make recycling easier. At Junk King, we have formed relationships with local metal recyclers, mattress recyclers, and non-profits that can use anything that can’t be readily recycled.

What is Recycling and Why Is Recycling Important?

Recycling is the process of gathering and eventually processing materials like metal, paper products, and plastics. Products made out of these materials can be thrown away in the regular trash, where they might take decades to decay in landfills.

So part of the reason that recycling is hard for some people to wrap their minds around is that it involves a lot of different products.

Why is recycling important, though? Recycling is important because it can prevent products containing the materials mentioned above from decaying in landfills and harming the environment.

A mattress, as one example, contains many recyclable materials (e.g., textiles and fibers) but also materials containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The beauty of recycling is that it allows recyclable materials to be reused and harmful materials to stay out of landfills.

Another benefit to recycling is the conservation of resources. By recycling metals fewer materials need to be mined – more materials are kept in circulation so that new products can be made from re/processed materials already in circulation.

At Junk King, we’re proud to be North America’s ‘greenest’ junk removal company for many years running. Partnering with North Shore recycling ensures that more products are kept in circulation and fewer decay in landfills, thus saving resources and benefiting the environment.

Easiest Materials to Recycle

Metals, glass, and plastics are some of the easiest materials to recycle because they’re probably lying around your home or business right now and readily processed at recycling facilities.

Metals

Recyclers typically separate ferrous (iron) from non-ferrous metals, but most metals are easily recycled. Steel is said to be the number-one recycled metal in the United States.

Aluminum is a close second thanks in large part to the fact that 100% of aluminum cans be recycled. Even more amazing is the fact that aluminum cans can go from the recycling plant to appearing back on store shelves in as little as two months!

Glass

Glass is another material that is 100 percent recyclable, according to the Glass Packaging Institute. Recyclable materials like glass are sent to a materials recovery facility to be further separated and processed accordingly.

The wonderful part about recycling glass is that it can be endlessly recycled without any loss of quality. Glass is pretty easy for recyclers to work with partly because it is made of, for instance, sand, limestone, or cullet.

These ingredients that go into making glass can be, in turn, heated up again and turned into new products. Glass is a hot commodity when it comes to making new products, so there’s no shortage of demand.

Although all kinds of glass can be recycled, some kinds of glass have to be recycled separately. Pyrex and crystal, for instance, may have to be processed differently than glass food containers.

Unfortunately, the percentages above from the EPA are paralleled with glass products since only about 39 percent of glass bottles were recovered for recycling, per 2018 data.

Because over a ton of natural resources are saved for a ton of glass recycled and 100 percent of glass can eventually be recycled, Junk King continues to partner with North Shore recycling to get those recycling numbers up!

Plastics

Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) – made from ethylene glycol and terephthalic acid – is a type of plastic that, like some of the metals and glass materials mentioned above, is recyclable. The good news on this front is that 1.5 billion pounds of PET bottles/containers are recovered for recycling purposes every year in the United States.

North Shore recycling and other recycling programs in the United States accept PET products, which can come from a variety of different products. Plastic bottles and plastic containers are a prime source, but PET is contained with clothing and construction debris as well.

PET is a very common plastic and is utilized to make a soft drinks, juice, and water bottles. Various dressings and cooking oils also use this kind of plastic for their packaging. About 31 percent of PET products get recycled in the United States, whereas across European countries about 52 of PET products get recycled.

It is said that the average American uses about 50 pounds of PET containers every year. That amounts to 500 pounds a decade! The incredible thing is that there’s a huge upside to recycling these PET containers and only a minority of them are recycled at present.