Sheets/Slabs/Toploaders - Can Any Be Recycled?
 

Sifting through the detritus of my typical post National organizing, I am aware I am jettisoning a LOT of plastic. We're trying to reduce our overall household plastic waste and a good chunk of it comes from me with my hobby stuff. Is any of this stuff recyclable?

At a guess I would say no to slabs and rigid top loaders. I'm not so sure about softer items like Card Savers and sheets. Anyone know?

I really have no idea, but my wife puts almost everything in our recycling trash and lets Waste Management deal with it. I’ve heard that WM sells plastic garbage to China for reprocessing, but I’ve also heard that China may not continue to do this. What WM does with it if that happens is the unknown.

Maybe I’ll learn more when my wife puts me in the recycling can.:eek:

Not so sure about the recycling bin Frank, but didn't you find it odd when she asked your height before ordering the new compost bin?? I hear you grow great tomatoes. :D

LOL!

This is a good thread.

In Toronto, we can put the plastic top-loaders, plastic soft sleeves and plastic binder pages in the blue recycling bins.

However, you can't put hard plastic in the blue bins (PSA, SGC, Beckett cracked slabs, heavy screwdowns, etc.) I actually have a lot of these sitting in my storage and I just don't want to throw them in the trash. I just don't know what to do with them! Any ideas?

Combining ideas from another post. Overview of a business plan for a new TPG, including recycling old slabs:

1. Create a system that rates attributes of a card individually, but without summarizing to a numeric value (similar to diamond grading)
2. Grading would note size/severity and location of imperfections
3. All graded cards would be accessible to view online per cert number and would include images of the whole card. Additionally, magnified images of corners and any identified imperfections relevant to the grading
4. Slabs would be made of partially recycled plastic
5. New submissions would get a discount on grading fees if including old slabs from other TPGs
6. Submissions would be limited to pre-1980 cards

So, that's what I would do with old slabs etc...

So, the recycling market is crap right now and they are charging me to bring my clients recyclables at the main facility. There is ZERO $$$ in it these days. It is mostly being shipped to Vietnam as China is no longer an option.

That said, the general rule of thumb is the more rigid the plastic, the better.
Put it in the recycling can and let WM sort it out is a excellent suggestion Frank

Are you selling or giving them away? As long as the slab are just opened and not chunks missing I would like them. I like to put custom cards with custom flips in them.

We used to have a city recycling system. Garbage in one container and recyclebales in the other. They picked them up desperately. Them they mixed them together and shipped it all to a landfill in North Dakota. LOL

South Dakota - Home of the Desperate Garbage Men

I am camping out in the middle of nowhere so my phone auto corrected separately.:)

Breaking News from the South Dakota Bureau of Tourism

South Dakota in the Middle of Nowhere - Desperate Campers Welcome

The $ in recycling isn't what goes in the bin, it's in the marketing of the products using the recycled material. Millennials and Gen Z throw their wallets at recycled stuff.

Most of them have a small chunk missing on one corner (I used plier to break it off). I do maybe have a few nice ones though. Tell you what, I can ship them all to you for free. All you have to do is pay for the postage. PM me if you are interested.

And that's horrible that they mixed recyclables with garbage and shipped them all to a landfill! Bunch of b*stards!

Been there, and you're not far from the truth. :D

It's actually pretty nice if you're camping, ND is also, and has way fewer people.

My slabs get cut first these days unless they are SGC. I don't have all that many graded crack outs anymore as I tend to buy raw now.


I'm going t start saving the Card Savers and softer items. I've read plastic that doesn't bend is not usually good in the recycling stream. It just struck me that if I have this much plastic, there is 100,000 more times of it out there at least. It's a lot of plastic waste.

Yeah, those straws really add up.:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Man, no kidding! Imagine Frank's value as fertilizer!

None of the items in questions are household collection recyclables. There is no PET (1'2) in the product and the more rigid, the less it is available for recycling. "Wishcycling" is costing the haulers and processors so much money that the communities they service are starting to opt out of curbside reclining. I have been in the industry for over 30 years - please PM me for more information. Throw that stuff in the garbage because that is what it is! And, don't listen to that bunk about filling up landfills. The US has a huge glut of landfill capacity. Of course, we do not want to generate unwanted waste that goes into a landfill, but Armageddon is not approaching.

We recycle as much as we can but it is a crap shoot too. I have heard that if you can put your finger through the plastic, around here, it is not recyclable. I have heard other things too but not sure what is true and what isn't. I throw almost all of my old plastic holders into the recycle and will let them figure it out. They look recyclable to me!!

actually
 

counter productive to put things they won't recycle with things they do. Requires extra sorting and disposal and is therefore less economical. As a quick aside - when living in Brooklyn in the 70's-90's we would bring bags and boxes of recycling when visiting friends upstate. On the third visit they asked us to stop as Monticello and White Lake had enough crap of their own.

I know it’s a spellcheck created error, John, but when the WM team is reclining on my curb, I file a complaint.:D

Our local has changed over the years. It used to be just 1+2 plastics, plus metal cans and glass bottles and paper. Some places wouldn't take mixed recycling, like if you had a tote full of paper and placed a 2 liter bottle on top they wouldn't take any of it.

Then they started taking other plastics, including at least briefly 7, which is Mylar.

Now, it's most plastic bottles, but no clamshells, even if it's a 1 or 2. And no black, since the automated sorter can't spot it on the black conveyor. But plastic egg cartons are ok, even though they're clamshells that once held food.... Confused yet?

"we want you to recycle, but we'll make it as difficult as possible"

There was a local ish trash place pre-2000 that I did some repair work for. They had a crew that would break open bags with a bobcat as soon as the truck emptied, and they would remove all the recycling. A few of the guys would unload and test electronics which actually get taken and resold. I don't think there's enough money in it for them to do that anymore.

on the subject of plastics...
 

anybody watch tonite's broadcast of "60 minutes"?
pretty shocking. :eek:

I throw sleeves, toploaders, pages, etc, that come to me during shipping in a box and give them to my local shop and he uses them for his inventory.

I did some research on this (along with suggestions for recycling) for my blog on Earth Day this year: https://bigleaguebreaks.com/inside-t...h-day-edition/

Good thread, I also have a lot of screw-downs, snap-together s and top loaders I have no use for anymore. I hesitate to ask my city as they change with the weather. They don't sort it anyway as it is all taken to Knoxville, I believe, to a recycle place there. The stuff I have in abundance is in great shape and I sold two large boxes three years ago for next nothing plus postage. I just hate to toss it so am hanging on until ???

Why not figure out what shipping will cost and sell it on this site in B/S/T ?

Thanks, I hadn't thought of that. I may try that rather than toss them or have them here for someone else to toss when I go.

We have over 50 lbs. of top loaders and would love to see someone use them. They are typically not going to be recycled by your local trash hauler or at your local town transfer station. And if you do include them with your other recyclables in your "blue bucket" your are likely contaminating GOOD recyclables at the collection center that they eventually reach. That's a problem. Wishful recycling is detrimental. ANYWAYS, if anyone wants top loaders for only the cost of shipping, please let me know. A USPS large flat rate box is now up to $21.90, but I will pack it as full as possible. I will fill as many boxes as you can use. Just PM me. Thanks in advance to anyone who can use them!

Eastman is building a huge recycling plant for plastic about 1 hour from me in Kingsport, Tennessee. Don't think they would be doing it if there was not a lot of money to be made off it. Better here than China. Wonder what happens to all the holders sent to card grading company's.

There is a lot of money in it but not from the actual recycling. I am all for recycling and really glad our local center no longer has "mysterious" fires.

ehazuka, that is awesome, hopefully you can find them a new home with people that need them.

Please email me, not PM
 

Farmerbret, you PM'd me and I've tried several times to reply ... but I don't think it's working. I've got a box full for you!!

If anyone can use these top loaders, please just email me. ehazuka over at h0tmail dot com.

Thanks.

As others have said, throw it in there and let the facility sort it out. If they want me to sort and wash my garbage, they’re gonna need to pay me.

I know used semi-rigids are (or were) getting good money on Ebay. I bought a collection with 2,000+ semi-rigids and got about $500 for them all. This was in the middle of COVID when production had shut down. Not sure how it's going these days.

Thanks. This post is really helpful. I guess you're a "not in my job description" type of guy.

"As others have said, throw it in there and let the facility sort it out. If they want me to sort and wash my garbage, they’re gonna need to pay me."

Top loaders are GONE!
 

I am glad I asked! The top loaders are GONE. I'm glad to see they can be repurposed. I urge anyone else who may have them taking up space in THEIR closet to just send out a message and you'll find folks that can use them. Nothing better than re-purposing. It's better than recycling.

Recycle
 

This is what allow & don’t allow in Ft Myers Florida.

Plastic sheets
 

If anyone one wants lightly used vinyl sheets and will pay shipping I will send you a bunch for free just message me

Just because something is “recyclable” doesn’t mean it can or will be recycled. Supply and demand leads to the value of the material. Without a market prices drop. China is no longer dependent of our recyclables. The market bottomed out and that’s why most places have stopped taking plastics besides #1 and #2.

You would be surprised to see what actually makes it to be recycled and what ends up in a landfill. Haulers are in some cases losing money “recycling”.

Here in the US people have to make or save money to recycle. I have seen shows where other smaller countries are very “GREEN” and do a fantastic part in recycling everything.

Adding this here because it might be a better option than throwing away old toploaders: https://blog.comc.com/2021/03/29/top...yback-program/

I love this.