For Residents

Recycling - What Does it Become?

	Material	What it becomes
	Newsprint (including inserts)	Newsprint or boxboard, building paper, asphalt shingles
	Cardboard (corrugated boxes)	Cardboard or boxboard
	Plastic bags (blue bags, grocery bags)	Plastic lumber, plastic bags, drainage pipe and other plastic products
	Plastic containers (soap, detergent, fabric softener, shampoo, yogurt, margarine, ice cream)	A variety of items such as plastic lumber, fibre fill, carpet, clothing, office supplies
	Milk cartons, juice boxes	Returned to bottle depots for revenue and recycling
	Mixed Paper (catalogues, writing/computer paper, junk mail, paper bags, envelopes, paper egg cartons, paperback books, gift wrap, cereal boxes, telephone books)	Boxboard, egg cartons, building paper, asphalt shingles
	Metal cans (food tins, empty aerosols)	Rebar, tractor/grader blades and other metal products
	Plastic milk jugs	Plastic sheeting
	Glass (green, brown or clear class)	Used in reflective paint, construction aggregate, glass bricks
	Returnable beverage containers	Returned to bottle depots for revenue and recycling

	Material	What it becomes
	Antifreeze (glycol)	Becomes antifreeze
	Motor oil/oil filters	Recycled as oil or used as fuel
	Car batteries	Plastic casing becomes new plastic casing; lead cells become new lead cells; acid is reused in the production of polystyrene
	Fluorescent tubes	Glass becomes fibreglass; aluminum end caps become other aluminum products; mercury is distilled into usable mercury
	Tires	Becomes rubber paving stones, livestock cushions
	Plastic oil containers	Cleaned and recycled into various plastic products
	Computer components	Glass, copper, ferrous metal, gold, silver, platinum, lead and plastics recycled
	Aerosol cans	Rebar or tractor/grader blades
	Large appliances, disposable propane/butane cylinders, and all scrap metal	Rebar or tractor/grader blades
	Usable paint (including full or partially full aerosols)	Recycled as paint and/or made available for free to the public (Edmontonians have received over 365,00 litres of free paint since the first Eco Station opened in 1995)

	Material	What it becomes
	Brush and trees (chipped or non chipped with no/minimal root soil)	Chipped and used for landscaping or as compost feedstock
	Dimensional lumber (unpainted and untreated, pallets, plywood, etc. )	Chipped and used for landscaping or as compost feedstock
	Clean and segregated drywall/gypsum	Ground to make an agricultural soil amendment. Some is blended with the City's compost to produce an enhanced product
	Clean and segregated asphalt Shingles	Shredded and recycled into asphalt Shingles