Laminated Paper & Cardboard
Recyclable?
Blue Bins & Chutes
Other Recycling
Recommended
Trash
When plastic is bonded to paper as it is with plastic lamination, it makes it impossible to recycle either material. Throw it out.
Water is required for paper recycling. Lamination makes paper water-resistant which is why it can't be recycled.
This is in fact not so simple… if you really want to understand more about lamination, read the info below!
General Waste
Info & Insights
It's not black and white!
Lamination is a very broad term which is used when “combining a paper substrate with a thin protective layer”.
The main concern with lamination is that such “protection” means the paper cannot be pulped because it is effectively waterproof. Likewise when there are thick plastic laminates, the material is more plastic than paper and should be treated as such. The plastic “contaminant” in the paper recycling stream is too great.
When paper is laminated on both sides, it is called “encapsulation". This kind of lamination typically makes pulping impossible.
How can you tell if paper is laminated or likely laminated?
- It often has a reflective sheen or glossy surface
- It is hard to tear without a lot of effort
- Drops of water bead on the laminated side
However these protective layers do not always interfere with recycling. It depends how much material is laminated to the paper.
How can you tell if a paper's lamination makes it unrecyclable?
- The plastic accounts for a significant amount of the total weight of the laminated paper (say 20% or more)
- The paper is completely encapsulated by the lamination making it waterproof.
We don't expect the average person to acquire a PhD in materials to have to work this out. You have to take a view. If you are not sure, just err on the side of caution and throw laminated materials into the trash.
If in doubt, throw it out.
Want to understand more? Read This.
Laminates are sneaky!
Think your disposable coffee cup is all paper? Think again. Here's a photo of a coffee cup that has been in a compost bin for 1 year. Worms have eaten all the paper leaving the plastic layer behind. Their ability to eat the paper proves the paper was not completely encapsulated by plastic.
This is an example of a one-sided laminate in which the lamination is likely very low compared to the total weight of the cup. If it was brand new, it would probably be recyclable (but WHY are you putting a new coffee cup in the bin?). This cup had food waste contamination so it was never suitable for recycling.
