Tee Cee's Tip for Monday, May 9, 2022

Daily Times-Call, Longmont, Colo.
·3 min read

May 8—Hi, Tee Cee,

My wife tells me the cardboard tubes that paper towels, toilet paper, wrapping paper, etc. are wrapped around cannot be recycled. These tubes seem to be the same type of lightweight cardboard that cereal boxes are made of, which I know can be recycled, so I would assume they're recyclable. Which one of us is right?

JD

Dear JD,

Well, how about this for a recipe for marital bliss? You're both partially correct.

Some of the tubes you describe are recyclable, some are better placed in the compost bin, and some belong in the trash.

You are correct — the material used for paper towel and toilet paper tubes is the same material used to make cereal boxes: It's called "paperboard."

Paperboard is a very low-value paper made from very short paper fibers, as opposed to corrugated cardboard, which is made of very long, strong fibers and is therefore an extremely valuable commodity in the recycling stream.

Since paperboard is of such low value to our paper buyers, sorting staffers at the Boulder County Recycling Center remove paperboard materials off our sorting conveyor belts by hand as we clean up more-valuable paper streams like cardboard and white paper.

Some applications of paperboard make it even less valuable, and therefore better suited for the compost bin, and in some cases, the trash. So let's talk paperboard tubes:

Toilet paper tubes: Here's where your wife is correct. Toilet paper tubes are so small that they are easily missed in the large piles of paper coming down conveyor belts at the recycling facility for hand sorting. It is therefore very likely they will get mixed into more-valuable paper like white paper. For this reason, we prefer that you choose the compost cart for your toilet paper tubes (they're just paper, so fully compostable). However, if you don't have access to compost services, you can recycle them.

Paper towel tubes: Paper towel tubes are larger than toilet paper tubes and more likely to be noticed by sorting staff members and properly recycled. You could choose the recycling cart or the compost cart for this material.

Wrapping paper tubes: Most of the time, wrapping paper tubes are recyclable. Here's the test to find out: If you can easily bend the tube the same way you can a paper towel tube, they are recyclable or compostable. However, sometimes these tubes are far more rigid and don't easily bend. In this case, the tube has more glue in it than recyclable paper fiber and should be thrown away in the trash.

Rigid paper tubes: Sometimes you'll find that a paperboard tube is much more heavy-duty and unbendable. These rigid paper tubes can be small, such as a small cylinder for packaging tape or duct tape, or large, like a tube used for carpeting. If a paperboard tube is rigid and unbendable, the tube contains more glue than paper and should go to the landfill.

Note: If you don't already have a curbside compost service to compost low-grade papers like toilet paper rolls, paper napkins and paper towels, you can subscribe for biweekly compost pickup at longmontcolorado.gov. You can also compost your materials at no cost at the Longmont Waste Diversion Center, at 140 Martin St.

Congratulations, you are now in the enviable position of being an expert on paperboard tubes! Share this information with your wife and enjoy the sweet (if not rare) feeling of when you're both right about something.

If you have a question or would like to learn everything there is to know about the recyclability and compostability of material, email Eco-Cycle at recycle@ecocycle.org or give us a call at 303-444-6634.

Tee Cee

Have zero waste questions? Want to become a volunteer Eco-Leader? Let us know at Rosie@ecocycle.org.