Sorting Instructions for Curbside Recycling

Sorting categories
     Eureka Recycling now accepts pizza boxes for recycling
Sorting your recycling makes a difference!
Adding new materials

Questions? Ideas? Concerns?
Call our Zero-Waste Hotline
Questions about the recycling program, or want to know more about how to recycle and reduce your waste in other ways? We want to hear from you.
(651) 222-SORT (7678)
info@eurekarecycling.org

Download the Saint Paul 2013 Guide to Recycling. (PDF)

Download the Roseville 2013 Guide to Recycling. (PDF)

Download the Lauderdale and Arden Hills 2013 Guide to Recycling. (PDF)

 

Educational resources for curbside recycling are available in Hmong, Somali, and Spanish.

 

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Please sort your recycling into these TWO categories:

• Bottles and Cans
• Paper and Cardboard

In addition, we collect reusable clothes and linens.

 

 

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Use recycling bins, brown paper bags, or cardboard boxes to sort your materials for recycling.

Recycling bins are available from your city. Sant Paul residents can get bins from their neighborhood community councils.

If you chose to provide your own recycling bins, please make sure that they are approximately the same size as the standard recycling bins (14 - 18 gallons). If you use cardboard boxes and want to keep them, please clearly mark them with the word "SAVE".

Please do not use plastic bags except for clothes and linens.

 

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Set out your recycling at the curb by 7 a.m., rain, snow or shine! Routes can change at any time and so can your pickup time.

 

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Bottles and Cans

The Details

All metal food & drink cans (rinse clean; labels are OK)
All metal can lids and jar lids
All aluminum foil & trays (rinse clean)

All glass bottles and jars (rinse clean and remove caps & lids)

Milk cartons and juice boxes (remove caps, rinse & flatten; plastic pour spouts are OK)

and plastic bottles only! Please empty, rinse, flatten, and put the cap back on.

No aerosol cans
No scrap metal
No window glass
No glass dishes or glasses
No broken glass
No Pyrex glass
No light bulbs
No ceramic dishes
No yogurt or margarine tubs
No plastic bags
No plastic bottles used to dispose of needles!

 

 

 

 

 

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Paper and Cardboard

The Details

Phone Books are OK
Envelopes with windows or metal clasps are OK
Notebook paper, spiral notebooks (with metal binding), folders, and computer paper are OK
Shredded paper should be put in a paper bag, stapled shut, and clearly marked
Do not use plastic bags!
Flatten cardboard to 3 ft x 3 ft or smaller
Tape and staples OK.

Boxboard includes: cereal, cracker, potato chip, cake, and snack boxes
tissue, medicine, toothpaste boxes
shoe, toy, game, and gift boxes.
Pop and beer boxes, too!

Eureka Recycling now accepts cardboard takeout/ delivery pizza boxes for recycling.

• No frozen pizza boxes (like you would get from the grocery store)
• No pizza boxes heavily caked with cheese or grease
• No plastic spacers (look like miniature tables)
• No wax or parchment paper sheets/trays
• No aluminum foil (you can put this with your bottles and cans for recycling)
• No leftover pizza

No waxed boxes
No egg cartons
No tissue or gift wrap
No paper cups or plates
No frozen or refrigerated food boxes
No paper towel or toilet paper tubes

 

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Clothes & Linens

These items must be clean and dry.

Linens: towels, sheets, blankets, curtains, tablecloths
Clothes: including belts, coats, hats, gloves, shoes, and boots

Clean fabric scraps and rags are OK

No wet or dirty clothes

• Place items in a sturdy plastic bag, 30-gallon size or smaller.
• Make sure the bag is not too heavy for one person to pick up easily.
  Fasten the bag tightly so items will not get wet or fall out.
• Clearly mark your bag CLOTHES & LINENS so that the drivers can see the bag is for recycling, not garbage.
• Put your bag at the curb by 7 a.m. with your other recycling on any recycling pickup day.
• Do not put any other recycling in plastic bags.

Sorry, we do not accept household goods other than clothes and linens.

No appliances
No books, tapes or CDs
No hardware or tools
No games or toys
No kitchen goods
No chemicals or hazardous waste
No cosmetics, creams or nail polish
No computers

Some of these items can be donated to your local Goodwill or secondhand store for reuse.

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Sorting your recycling makes a difference!

Eureka Recycling only collects materials that we can recycle, so we don't waste resources in collecting, hauling, and processing materials that need to be disposed of as garbage, and so you aren't misled by believing something is recyclable just because it was taken from your recycling bin.

We use a two-sort recycling program to also help ensure the greatest environmental benefit for the materials you set out for recycling.

Sorting your recycling in two categories (rather than throwing everything all together) helps to retain the high quality of your materials and makes sure they can be recycled into new products. Every time a newspaper, cardboard box, glass bottle, or other item is made into a new product, all of the energy that would have been needed to make that same item from virgin material is conserved.

Sorting also helps to retain the high quality of your materials and makes sure they don't get contaminated and need to be disposed of as garbage.

Your recycling is collected in our biodiesel trucks with two compartments that keep papers and cardboard separate from bottles and cans. Materials arrive in these two categories at our processing facility where they are further sorted by material type.

The environmental benefits that are realized when your recycling is made into new products is possible because you recognize the value in your materials and take the care to sort them. We believe that if you take the time and effort to set out materials that can be recycled, then neither your efforts nor the recyclable material should be wasted.

Thank you for recycling!

For more information about why sorting your recycling makes a difference, see our fact sheet about the challenges of single stream recycling.

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Adding new materials

We are always working to add new materials to the recycling program. In recent years we have been able to offer the collection of a few unique materials such as milk cartons and juice boxes, clothes and linens, and pizza boxes.

We have a reputation among our many end markets (like paper mills) for taking the time and energy to assure that material is clean and free of contaminants. Because of this history, we were able to work with our cardboard end-markets to find a way to add pizza boxes without causing any ill effects on the end product.
 
While we would like to continue to broaden the materials we can collect for recycling, we know that recycling alone will not solve our problems with waste. Collecting new materials can often be the easiest part, but we first need to work with product producers and end-markets to make sure new materials can be and really are recycled.

Producer responsibility is necessary to achieve zero waste, so we engage with manufacturers to change the way they design their products. For example, requiring manufacturers to include recycled content in their products helps to support the demand for recycled products that is necessary for the successful expansion of recycling programs.

To learn more about the details involved in collecting and recycling difficult materials such as glass, pop and beer boxes, and milk cartons and juice boxes, read our fact sheet: "Are these materials getting recycled?"

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Last Update: April 2012