Green Business Network

[mchurch]

Does anybody know if there are any organisations that will accept old calenders, wall charts and the like. Often these items have glossy paper, plastic jackets and metal spiral bindings.

Regards

Mark

[jvarley]

Laminated printed materials are almost impossible to recycle as they are classified as "mixed materials" or "mixed plastics". It is extremely difficult to separate the paper from its plastic coating therefore not worth anyone's while to deal with it.

However, if it's just a gloss coating, most recycling collectors will accept this in the same way as they would accept a magazine. The easiest way to tell whether it's laminated is to tear the thing and see if there's a plastic layer that you can separate from the paper.

The insides of diaries can be recycled alongside office paper - it may take a bit of brute force to separate the innards from the cover! If the wiro binding is just metal, this can go into a metal recycling collection skip. If it's plastic coated, you have the mixed materials problem again.

Otherwise, there really isn't much you can do with them at the moment. This is one of the reasons GBN recommends that you look at giveaways or office products that you purchase with an eye on their lifecycle - ie how easy is it going to be for yourself or someone else to dispose of once it's useful lifespan is completed.

I will keep my eyes open for an organisation that can make use of this type of material but for now it's best to try to find alternatives that can be recycled once you're done with them.