Ice cream cartons are easily one of America’s favorite desserts. With the average American eating around 23 pounds of ice cream each year, it’s no shock that you may be needing to get rid of ice cream cartons.
Since ice cream cartons are primarily made of paper, you may be tempted to toss them in your recycling bin. Unfortunately, ice cream cartons are not always recyclable, depending on where you live.
So as not to ruin the rest of your recyclables, you must know how to get rid of ice cream cartons based on your city. To find out more about how to get rid of ice cream cartons, read on. In this article, we specifically look at getting rid of ice cream cartons in a more eco-friendly way.
Get Rid of Ice Cream Cartons in the Garbage Bin
Obviously, you can toss a carton of ice cream in your regular garbage bin with the rest of your household garbage. From there, workers bring the ice cream carton to a local landfill for it to be out of the way and out of your home.
Recycling
Many people want to leave a smaller imprint on the world. So, they try to recycle as much as they can. Given that ice cream containers have a cardboard structure, many people will put the container with their recyclables.
Even though this is a noble act, most ice cream cartons are not recyclable. That’s because ice cream cartons are specifically designed to handle freezing temperatures, unlike regular paperboard. More so, it has a polyethylene plastic lining, making it wet strength paper board.
In order to recycle paper, facilities add water to the paper so that it can be turned into pulp. Since ice cream cartons are specifically designed to not breakdown under intense temperatures or moisture exposure, these paperboard materials will not breakdown easily or turned into pulp simply by adding water.
As a result, most recycling facilities do not accept ice cream cartons in their system. Some facilities, however, do accept these sorts of materials. If they accept ice cream cartons, you would be able to easily find out online or by calling them up.
To recycle ice cream cartons at these facilities, you have to take extra precautions before tossing them in the recycling bin. Most notably, you need to make sure it is free of any food residue. If it has any food on the inside or on the outside, it will contaminate the recyclables.
What’s The Best Option?
If available to you, the best option for getting rid of your ice cream cartons is to recycle them. Because of the polyethylene lining, many facilities will not accept these materials. If your facility does not offer recycling services to ice cream cartons, the only thing you can do is toss them in your regular garbage bin.
If you still want to be environmentally-friendly with your cartons, you reuse them by cleaning them out and using them for other purposes. For example, use them for additional storage or crafts. This helps you to get rid of them in a way that is less wasteful.