Consumer Tips /

One Simple Way Your Household Can Help the Planet

Every year, Americans throw enough trash into landfills to fill more than 15 million garbage trucks. That’s enough to circle the earth more than four times! Reducing, reusing and recycling the products you use can significantly reduce the quantity of waste in landfills and in your community. Recycling also helps us preserve our limited natural resources.

Carton recycling is now available to nearly 61% of U.S. households, which means more than 71 million homes across the country can recycle their food and beverage cartons. Common foods and beverages that come in cartons include milk, juice, broth, water and wine. Chances are your community has access to carton recycling at home and at school, but you can use our recycling locator to confirm.

The impact of carton recycling is huge. For example, a school milk carton recycling program can save the equivalent of 781,169 sheets of paper72 trees29,848 gallons of water; and divert an astonishing 1,956 trash bags from landfills in just five years. By recycling every day at home, you can make just as much of an impact.

Now, with resource scarcity and climate change, recycling is needed more than ever. While governments and manufacturing industries have the responsibility to invest in sustainable infrastructure, consumers like you also have a critical role to play by ensuring your recyclable items always go in the recycling bin. Sounds like a no-brainer, but keeping non-recyclable items out of the recycling bin is key. Keeping food and beverage cartons out of landfills all starts with you recycling correctly.

You can recycle your cartons at home with these three-easy steps:

1. Empty your carton.

2. Toss it in the recycling bin.

3. Take them to the curb.

Pro tip: keep the cap on or push the straw back in, and no need to rinse!

More recycled cartons means more recycled fibers to make paper products. It also means less natural resources are used and less waste is sent to landfills. Recycle your cartons to take the first step towards a more sustainable future. Learn more about food and beverage carton recycling on FacebookTwitter, and Instagram.