Recycle me please

July 7, 2008 2:52 AM

What type of plastic is used for lining breakfast cereal boxes. Is this a recyclable material?
posted by ptm to Home & Garden (4 answers total)

The waxy plastic lining of cereal boxes is not recyclable where I live (southern ontario), it goes in the regular garbage, as opposed to the blue or green bins. My google-fu isn't bringing me any results on what it's made of. I've always assumed it's a wax paper/plastic hybrid.

Because it's a non-recyclable I try to re-use it, for storing other foods. Here's a site that has some re-use ideas. A comment on that page says that the liners are made of hdpe plastic, but I'm not sure that's true, since hdpes are recyclable, but the liners definitely aren't.

You should call your region's recycle department and find out directly from them. Or check to see if they have a website with a list of what goes in the recycle bins and what goes in regular waste.
posted by zarah at 3:15 AM on July 7, 2008

Best answer: The most common non-glassine liners are coextrusions of HDPE with an ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) -based seal layer (approximately 18 to 20 weight % VA EVA) . Other known liners include a zinc lonomer in the sealant layer. Still another known liners (for a high sugar, high flavor cereal) include coextrusions of high density polyethylene (HDPE) , nylon, and an lonomer-based sealant.
posted by sergeant sandwich at 3:35 AM on July 7, 2008 [1 favorite]

As Zarah says, my building lists "cereal box liners" as a specific non-recyclable that they'd much appreciate not being mixed in with recyclables.

Wow, SS's description sounds so yummy that I think I'll switch to oatmeal. :/
posted by rokusan at 5:09 AM on July 7, 2008

An aside: The liners are also treated with BHT and BHA. So if you are concerned about preservatives, re-using these bags is probably not that good of an idea.
posted by zpousman at 5:44 AM on July 7, 2008