Since they’re so common, many people wonder if they can recycle juice pouches. Unfortunately, many juice pouches aren’t meant to be recycled.
In order to make them beautiful again, you need to sip of them.
So, can you recycle juice pouches?
Juice pouches cannot go in your blue can (or any colored can) because when you put them in the recycling machine, these can’t travel properly through the sorting lines.
They’re constructed of two recyclable materials, but the plastic top and pouch are fused together using heat or chemicals.
You’ll almost certainly have to toss them in the trash.
The issue is that when you separate the pouch from the plastic top in the recycling machine, the plastic top doesn’t divert properly.
This is due to some types of plastics being hard to shred and process.
Can You Recycle Juice Pouches?
Contents
No, and you can’t recycle juice pouches in any of your regular recycling bins.
Juice pouches should be disposed of as trash or recycled as garbage.
The majority of juice pouches are made from polyethylene and polypropylene.
The issue is that when these components are separated from one another in recycling machines, it slows down the sorting process.
As you may know, we usually sort our recycling bins by type of material.
We can almost promise that if you got rid of your juice pouches and swapped them for normal sized juice boxes, then all your recyclables would go much faster through the machines.
Will Juice Pouches Ever Be Recyclable?
Juice Pouches are unlikely ever to be recyclable, and the best option is to recycle them or throw them away.
This is likely due to a lack of motivation from manufacturers to develop an affordable production process to sort the components from one another in a recycling machine.
Perhaps the only thing we, as consumers, can realistically do is to keep on demanding better.
People will begin to abandon juice pouches if an alternative product is perceived as more environmentally friendly, cheaper, or more convenient.
How to Add the Juice Pouches to Your Trash
We understand that for many, this may not seem like the best solution.
If you’re going to throw away your juice pouch anyway, you could just throw it in with the rest of your trash.
This is due to plastic bags and wrappers being included in many types of standard collection bins and bags for trash collection.
Some of the fluid from the juice pouch may leak out over time and mix with the wet paper or cardboard in your bin or bag, potentially contaminating the clean paper or cardboard.
In an ideal world, you would reduce your reliance on disposable plastic packaging such as juice pouches.
Also Read: Are Refrigerator Water Filters Recyclable?
Are There Alternatives To Juice Pouches?
In an ideal world, you would reduce your reliance on disposable plastic packaging such as juice pouches.
Pick up a reusable container from your local grocery store and fill it with fresh juice rather than buying expensive juice pouches.
There will also usually be a reduced cost for using a reusable container than paying to have your juice packaged in a plastic pouch.
It will be much heavier to carry and more likely to get lost or knocked over.
It could even wind up in the nearest body of water, where it would be much harder to clean up than if it were disposed of properly in your local recycling program, if that’s an option in your area.
Conclusion
You can’t recycle juice pouches because they are designed not to fall apart easily if they aren’t opened.
So, if juice pouches are in your recycling bin, they will be contaminated by non-recyclable materials so that they end up in the landfill instead.
Try to avoid using juice pouches and recycle the containers responsibly instead if you can.
