An increasing number of individuals and businesses are searching for ways to increase their recycling efforts. Thanks to many awareness campaigns about the immense environmental benefits that recycling provides, more people are recycling today than ever before.
At the same time, there’s still a lot of confusion about what can and can’t be recycled, and how recyclable materials should be best prepared to be processed.
One of the biggest causes of confusion lies with the mail and, more specifically, envelopes. Even though individuals and businesses don’t rely on physical mail as much as they used to, there is still plenty of mail that’s sent on a daily basis.
In fact, the U.S. Postal Service processed and delivered 318 million pieces of mail each day in 2023. That’s a lot of mail, and a lot of potentially recyclable materials that are being thrown in the trash.
This all begs the question: Are envelopes recyclable? If so, which type of envelopes are recyclable, and is there anything that needs to be done in advance for preparation?
Below, we’ll answer some of the main questions that individuals and businesses have about recycling envelopes.
What Types of Mail Can Be Recycled?
The good news is that a majority of the mail that is sent can be recycled easily. In many cases, this mail doesn’t even need to be prepped in any special way, either.
Cardboard boxes, paper products and other paper mail can be recycled in your curbside bin. Many communities and even commercial waste management services provide for what’s known as single-stream recycling today.
This means that you don’t even have to sort recyclables into separate categories such as cardboard, plastic, glass and so forth. Instead, you can drop it all into the same bin, and it will be sorted appropriately at the recycling facility.
One suggestion with cardboard, though, is to break it down into more manageable pieces, either by simply breaking the box down or by cutting it into smaller segments. This makes it easier to fit in a recycling bin and takes up less space before it’s put out to the curb, which is important today with so many packages being delivered.
Luckily, it’s not just the paper and cardboard mail that can be recycled. Magazines and other glossy cardstock are recyclable as well. It’s best to remove product samples, plastic wrap and sticker sheets from magazines, if they have them, before you put them in the recycling bin.
Brown filler paper and newspaper can easily be recycled as well, without any preparation.
What Envelopes Can Be Recycled?
Almost all envelopes can be recycled as well.
Standard envelopes can easily be recycled without doing any prep work, even with writing, a return address label and stamp on them. If the contents of the envelope are also fully recyclable, you can even throw the whole thing in a recycling bin without worrying about removing any staples or other sticky notes, if they have them.
Paper envelopes that have address windows are also fully recyclable. This is even though there’s a transparent film covering the address window that’s likely made of cellulose or plastic.
Recycling facilities today can remove this address window during the pulping process without a problem. That being said, you can help the process along by ripping the address window off the envelope and discarding it in your regular trash.
The Recycling Process
Once your recycling bins have been collected from your home or business, they will undergo a multi-step process that allows them to be properly prepared and processed into materials that can be reused.
The first step in doing this, of course, is collecting the recyclable materials, including envelopes, and transporting them to a local materials recovery facility. This facility may either have a contract with your local municipality — for home recycling — or may be contracted with the waste management provider you hire for your commercial business.
At the facility, the materials are then sorted, baled and sent off to a paper mill, where they will be repulped so that new paper products can be created. During this process, all contaminants, including the address windows from envelopes, are removed.
What results is a raw material that’s used in the process of making new paper.
It’s quite an amazing process, and helps to conserve natural resources, reduce waste and decrease the need for new paper products. That’s why it’s so advantageous to recycle as much as you can.
Benefits of Recycling Envelopes
Despite the fact that “snail mail” seems to be a thing of the past, there’s still a lot of mail that’s sent everyday. When this mail is simply discarded in the trash and not recycled, it’s a missed opportunity to reduce junk mail and the amount of waste that’s sent to landfills.
Recycling just one ton of paper can save more than 17 trees from being harvested. This not only preserves natural resources all across the world, but also reduces greenhouse gas emissions. That’s because fossil fuels are used in the production of paper at factories, and trees naturally absorb carbon dioxide in the air.
In addition, recycling paper uses 70% less energy and water compared to producing new paper. This makes recycling paper a significant environmental practice that every individual and business should follow.
Ensuring that all paper is recycled, including envelopes, will help to build a more sustainable future and reduce our reliance on single-use plastics, including plastic bags and bubble wrap.
Partner with GPS Waste to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint
Waste management isn’t often thought of in the same vein with environmentally-practices, but it can be exactly that.
At GPS Waste, we are dedicated to providing as much value to our customers as possible while providing equal benefits to the environment around us. We do this through our innovative, tech-forward approach to waste and recycling services for commercial businesses.
We help businesses streamline their operations to achieve cost savings, while also positively contributing to the world around us.
For more information, please contact us today.
