News

New life for old cartons ... & an epic dance

(EDITOR'S NOTE: Confused about what you can and can’t recycle, not to mention the “where” and “how”? Let Covington’s Solid Waste & Recycling team break it down for you.)

COVINGTON, Ky. – Just like “The Carlton*,” doing “The Carton” requires precision and cognition.

By that we mean you have to know which cartons you can throw in your curbside recycling cart, and which ones you can’t. Also, how to prep them for recycling.

So …

The prep

Empty and rinse out the carton. Remove and throw away any plastic lids/caps and straws, or – better yet – recycle them at Cincinnati Recycling and Reuse Hub, 911 Evans St. Cincinnati, OH 45204.

'Yes' or 'no'

  • These are accepted in your curbside cart: Cartons/boxes that contained milk, soy and almond milk, soup, juice, broth, wine and egg substitutes.
  • These are not accepted: Egg cartons of any kind. (Styrofoam is problematic due to the material, paper due to fiber size, and plastic due to shape.)

Fun fact

The paper pulp from shredded cartons finds new life as toilet paper, paper towels, or eco-friendly construction material like boards that cover roofs. About 400 cartons can make up a 4-foot by 8-foot building material board, and each truck load of this product can remove almost 300,000 cartons from the landfill.

***

(*The Carlton: the younger Banks’ epic dance in The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. If you’re not familiar, just search on YouTube, or ask a brother-in-law in his late 40s or 50s to demonstrate.)

###