Why can’t I recycle frozen food containers?
We can recycle 2 types of paper cartons:
• Shelf stable cartons such as broth and juice boxes
• Refrigerated cartons such as milk and orange juice cartons
These are coated with a single layer of polyethylene


The main reason we can’t accept frozen food containers in our program is they are have more types of plastic coatings than the shelf stable and refrigerated cartons. Cartons are coated with a layer of Polyethylene. Frozen food containers can have various types of coatings and because of the variation they can cause problems when trying to separate the fiber (paper) layer from the coating layers. Paper mills can’t separate out these embedded plastic layers from the paper fiber, resulting in problems when they try to pulp the fiber into new paper.

Show All Answers

1. Who should recycle?
2. Why should I recycle?
3. Why can’t I recycle frozen food containers?
5. I've heard I can no longer put my shredded paper curbside to be recycled. What can I do with it?
6. Does it help to flatten my aluminum cans?
7. Should I separate all my magazines, newspaper, junk mail, and cereal boxes into separate paper bags for recycling?
8. Can I recycle wrapping paper from holidays and special occasions?