Can I Put CDs in the recycling bin? That’s the question you’d ask yourself if you had loved CDs from those yearly 1900 days and have a stack of them. Or you could be a music lover who still chooses CDs and DVDs over other expensive technology equipment with better features. Find yourself welcome to know what to do with those old CDs with complete details.
Table of Contents
Here, I will let you know what you can do with your old collection of CDs. Whether you should keep them or throw them? Are they recyclable and answer a couple of other queries? So, please keep reading till the end. Let’s get this conversation started!
Can I Really Put CDs Or DVDs In The Recycling Bin?
Since we are all aware of the sole purpose of keeping recyclables into the recycling bins, we should also know whether or not CDs or tapes are recyclable.
We will look closely at this matter but first, let’s figure out whether these are good to put inside a recycling bin or not.
If your local recyclable collectors don’t accept CDs or DVDs for recycling, you cannot keep them in a curbside recycling bin. But if there is any nearby recycling unit that is ready to accept CDs and DVDs for recycling, you can keep them in your household recycling bin.
That’s because it will create hazards for your local waste collectors as they will have to sort out the stuff and separate these pieces from other recyclables.
What can be put inside a recycling bin and what not is totally decided by your local laws and govt impositions.
Plus, there are some standards that let you know what can you really put inside a recycling bin and what not.
So, stating this recycling bin fact about CDs and DVDs is very simple. But are you sure that these are fully recyclable? Let’s find out!
Are CDs And DVDs Fully Recyclable?
Yes, that question is always answered in YES because CDS are fully recyclable. However, having them in any sorted curbside recycling bin is not appropriate if you are not asked to do that by your local government or recycling center.
That’s true that recycling a certain product is usually determined by the material with which they are made off. As a matter with CDs and DVDs, most of them are made out of that number 7 plastic.
It is basically Polycarbonate plastic which is considered the least recyclable material. But yet, it is recyclable if proper recycling methods are available.
Moreover, these CDs or DVDs are sometimes made from Polystyrene Material, graded with the number 6.
Therefore, these CDs are recyclable if you find out which place is actually accepting them for recycling purposes.
On the other hand, every CD contains some parts of Aluminum and even Gold Traces. These materials are recyclable.
But whoever recycles these parts from CDs, they separate them at first and then sends them to the recycling machines.
How CDs Or DVDs are Made And Contain What Parts?
In order to understand the recycling process or how recycling of these CDs can be done, you have to understand how these CDs or DVDs are made of.
Since, it is clear that these CDs are either made from Polycarbonate Plastic (7) or Polystyrene Plastic (6).
But here, some other parts are taking part in producing these compact disks. Please have a look!
The Label:
There is always a label on the CD case which shows what movie or collection of songs you will be getting inside.
However, suppose there is any blank CD you get. In that case, you may only get the information regarding storage capacity and maker’s name, etc.
A Layer of Acrylic:
To protect those DVDs and CDs from high oxidation problems, there is a layer of Acrylic, basically another layer of plastic. It helps in keeping the CD protected.
An Aluminum Reflective Layer:
A CD player must be able to interoperate that CD is ensured by adding a Layer of Aluminum onto it. It reflects the laser back for interoperating purposes.
The Polycarbonate Itself:
The last and most important thing a CD will contain is the polycarbonate itself. This extremely durable layer of plastic helps the CD contain the encoded media or data on it.
This data will be read and played by the CD driver laser.
What Parts Of CDs Are Recyclable?
Since it is transparent that CDs or DVDs are a mixture of a couple of components. It includes components as follows.
- The Shiny Compact Disk itself.
- Its Case in which it is kept.
- Some Aluminum and Gold Additional.
- Those paper liner notes are slipped into the cases.
All these pieces collectively make a CD or a DVD. But which one of these is fully recyclable? The answer is simple.
The Shiny Compact Disk:
Since it is made from plastic, as stated earlier, it is recyclable. Only if any nearby recycling center accepts it.
The Case Itself:
The case is also made from plastic. It can be recycled by removing all types of printing and paper stuff.
Aluminum Stuff:
Who says that Aluminum is not recyclable? According to Aluminum.org, it is fully recyclable metal, and anything made from it is also recyclable.
Paper Liner:
It is also clear that paper is recyclable. This means all printed stuff or paper liner notes inside CDs are collected separately and recycled similarly.
Depending on these situations, even if your proposed recycling center, which might not be a grand one, accepts these CDs as a whole, they will be recycling some of their parts.
Either it could be paper, Aluminum, or the plastic itself.
Is Recycling Better, Or Should You Throw CDs And DVDs Into Trash?
At this point, you are pretty sure that your CDs and DVDs are wholly recyclable if any recycling facility accepts them in your area.
In most situations, these out-of-use, damaged, not repairable CD drives or DVDs come into the category of electronic waste.
Therefore, in most cases, only the companies that accept e-waste for recycling, such as those computers, old printers or phones, etc., would also accept these CD drives.
But the question is, can these CDs be part of landfills and trash? Here are the reasons that would justify this situation!
Resulting In Higher Energy Losses:
CDs should not become part of trash or landfills because they result in higher energy loss, damaging the environment and other valuable resources.
Slow Decomposition:
In a landfill of waste, CDs or DVD drives don’t decompose easily as they don’t break or anything inhale them or transform them into something new. It is really an issue.
Up To 1 Million Years In Full Decomposition:
According to one estimation, a single Compact Disk can take up to 1 million years to fully decompose in a landfill. That’s alarming.
Releasing Of Toxic Fumes And Gases:
When it’s been a long time since these CDs are in the landfills, they may start contaminating the air.
It is done by releasing the Bisphenol-A chemical, which is toxic and causes many dangerous diseases in human beings.
New CDs, A Difficult Process:
Making new CDs or DVDs is not easy because it requires a lot of money, effort, and time as it is required in manufacturing other things like this.
According to one estimation, to produce 30 new CDs, you may require the following items in the following quantity.
- Almost 300 Cft. Natural Gas.
- Crude Oil in almost 2 cups.
- Plus a maximum quantity of 24 gallons of water.
So, the recommendations will always be to send these CDs to those built and dedicated recycling centers.
They can recycle them and make new products from that material there. Moreover, you may earn some cash by selling these CDs or DVDs to these centers.
What Is One Of The Famous CD Recycling Centers Of America?
Want to send your stack of CDs and DVDs to any recycling center in America and don’t know which one is accepting?
Please look at some of the famous recycling centers that accept this electronic waste from your house’s doorstep, offer you cash, and take them away for recycling. These are as follows.
Contact Lessismore.org and let them know you have a huge collection of CDs you want to give for recycling. They will respond to your call and tell you the quick delivery or pickup location in your town.
Visit www.cdrecyclingcenter.com and find out if they are accepting CDs for recycling. Yes, they really do, and you will find that opportunity there.
Also, visit LEXINGTON.Gov as they accept household CDs and provide an e-waste recycling facility for all of you. This is another best place.
Moreover, you can always search online about where to recycle CDs near me, and you will find the most appropriate locations nearby your house. Only if there are any!
Final Thoughts:
Hopefully, if you have read this article, your doubts on whether can I put CDs in the recycling bin or not have been cleared. Keep them in the recycling bins if you ask to. Otherwise, they won’t really come into the bins stating there can be other usages of these CDs such as donating, repurposing, etc. With this, your queries and suggestions are welcome.
But today, give a share to all facing the same problem if you liked the article. Thanks for being here. See you at the next one!
References:
- Fujita, T., Dodbiba, G., Miyawaki, K., Sadaki, J., Murata, K. and Ihashi, T., 2007. Erasing Data and Recycling of Optical Disks. Data Science Journal, 6, pp.S11-S17.
- Cerbu, C. and Teodorescu-Draghicescu, H., 2009, July. Bending behaviour of the composite materials made by recycling of the CDs and DVDs. In Proceedings of the world congress on engineering (Vol. 2).
- Thompson, J., 2022. Worried About Disc Rot? Here’s How To Look After Your CDs | Discogs. [online] Discogs Blog. Available at: <https://blog.discogs.com/en/say-no-to-disc-rot-how-to-look-after-cds/> [Accessed 7 August 2022].
James is an organic fertilizer professional who owns a successful organic fertilizer company in new jersey. He is an expert in waste management in both houses and community cases. In his free time, he loves to write about his experiences in the field.
