{"id":800280,"date":"2019-10-11T08:30:58","date_gmt":"2019-10-11T14:30:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=372842"},"modified":"2019-10-11T08:30:58","modified_gmt":"2019-10-11T14:30:58","slug":"ask-eartha-carton-recycling-confusion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/ask-eartha-carton-recycling-confusion\/","title":{"rendered":"Ask Eartha: Carton recycling confusion"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Dear Eartha,<\/em>
I\u2019ve noticed there is a new container at the drop-off centers for food and beverage cartons. How can I tell what is a recyclable carton? Do these cartons actually get recycled, and what are they being used for?<\/em>
\u2014 Riley, Dillon<\/em><\/p>\n

We\u2019re delighted residents now can recycle these food and beverage cartons at the Breckenridge and Frisco recycling centers. Recyclable cartons accepted at the drop-off centers typically hold plant-based milks, pourable egg whites, individual servings of juice, shelf-stable milks, even boxed water and boxed soup.<\/p>\n

You might mistake some things as cartons, but remember that coffee cups, ice cream containers, egg cartons, Styrofoam and plastics are not accepted in these new bins.<\/p>\n

Cartons accepted<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cartons are made primarily from paper, with a unique plastic lining. Shelf-stable cartons also contain a layer of aluminum. These two special linings help ensure a safe and preserved product. Because of the unique paper fiber composition and the special linings, other look-alike materials (like ice cream tubs) can\u2019t be recycled alongside them.<\/p>\n

You\u2019ll see cartons with flat tops or slanted gable tops (those that look like a building with a roof). The flat-top cartons usually contain juice (small juice boxes), broth, soup, coconut water or wine. Gable-topped versions are typically milk, creamers, egg substitutes and juice that you\u2019d find in the refrigerated section. Both types of cartons often have a plastic cap.<\/p>\n

Not accepted<\/strong><\/p>\n

Remember those items you might mistake as cartons? Coffee and hot beverage cups, other to-go cups like those used for soda, take out containers (whether Styrofoam or paper), ice cream tubs, Tupperware, egg cartons and cylindrical oatmeal containers are not accepted in the new bins. Some of these really do resemble cartons, but remember to look at the top. None of these have a cap or gable-top like a carton always will. (You can, however, drop your paper egg cartons in the cardboard and paperboard bin.)<\/p>\n

When recycling cartons, remove caps and straws, which can get tangled up in recycling machinery and can\u2019t be processed in the same manner as the cartons. Be sure to rinse before recycling, too.<\/p>\n

New life for cartons<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once the bins at the drop-off centers are full, the cartons are taken to the Summit County Resource Allocation Park, where they are bundled together and sold. From there, a recycling company shreds the cartons, applies heat and presses everything together (think panini press) into a big sheet. Those sheets become ceiling tiles or wallboard, an alternative to drywall. About 30 cartons turn into a 2-foot-square ceiling tile, and about 400 cartons make up each wallboard.<\/p>\n

We hope this helps clear up some of your confusion. And we hope you\u2019ll remember the most important tip to identify a food and beverage carton: look for the little caps or gable-top roof. We\u2019re excited Summit County now offers carton recycling, and we hope to see you out there recycling yours. If you have more questions on recycling, head to HighCountryConservation.org<\/a> or call 970-668-5703.<\/p>\n

Ask Eartha Steward is written by the staff at the High Country Conservation Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to waste reduction and resource conservation. Submit questions to Eartha at info@highcountryconservation.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Eartha,I\u2019ve noticed there is a new container at the drop-off centers for food and beverage cartons. How can I tell what is a recyclable carton? Do these cartons actually get recycled, and what are they being used for?\u2014 Riley, Dillon We\u2019re delighted residents now can recycle these food and beverage cartons at the Breckenridge […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-800280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-25 06:55:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800280\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}