Notebooks Put in Recycling Cart Remove Spiral Binding Remove the metal spiral or plastic coil from your notebook before recycling it. Dispose of metal spirals in the garbage or as scrap metal. Dispose of plastic coils as garbage. Remove Plastic Cover If the notebook has a plastic front or back cover, remove and throw away before recycling the paper. Plastic contaminates paper recycling. Remove Other Non-Paper Items Flip through the notebook and remove any non-paper items such as staples, paper clips, cloth bindings, or pages with glitter or glue. Put Only Paper in Recycling After any metal and plastic pieces have been removed from the notebook, place the paper and any cardboard pieces in the recycling. Ways to Reduce Use Both Sides Always try to use both sides of a piece of paper to cut down on your overall paper use. Ways to Reuse Keep Unused Pages for Scratch Paper Didn’t use the whole notebook? Tear out any unused pages and keep them to use as scratch paper. Did You Know? How to Remove Bindings Without a Mess If you don’t want to tear the paper out of your spiral notebook and risk getting pieces everywhere, try these methods to remove the spirals instead. An Easier Way to Remove Notebook Wires If you have tools at home, try this method to remove metal spirals from your notebooks even faster.
