Removing staples from recycled mags

Wings_of_Ambition

Was just wondering how important it is to remove staples from magazine and papers being recycled. I currently take them out but it can be a pain, and means I have a small pile of staples waiting to be recycled with the 'tins'.

Anyone have any insight as to whether it matters if they're removed or not?

ScoobieGirl

It doesn't matter. The recycling plants will also take paper from commercial printers who will not take the time to remove them.

PasturesNew

I've never saved the staples, but simply opened a magazine out, tore down the bend, thus making the staples close to the edges. Then grab the staples and with a quick twist tear off the staple and the bit of the pages it is attached to and chucked those in the normal bin.

I think by extracting the staples individually and placing them with tins to be recycled ... you're probably going a bit too far.

Firefly

PasturesNew wrote: »

I think by extracting the staples individually and placing them with tins to be recycled ... you're probably going a bit too far.

I admire your dedication to the cause! You've got more patience than me!

champys

i also think that the staples do not cause too much of a problem. but what about the spirals in spiral-bound notebooks? i always make an effort to remove them, but i usually hurt myself in the process one way or another. does anyone know an easy and foolproof way of getting them out? of course i'd love to hear that i can leave them in, but i don't think that is likely!

carol_a_3

I just rip the pages out of a spiral bound book a few at a time and then put the spring in the bin.

miss_corerupted

my friend is from Germany and she told me they have to remove the staples and put them in metal recycling!!!! I hope she's teasing me

Horace

miss_corerupted wrote: »

my friend is from Germany and she told me they have to remove the staples and put them in metal recycling!!!! I hope she's teasing me

My local council paper recycling bin - claims to accept magazines - so everyone puts in the magazines complete with staples. Anyway in these paper recycling places they have magnets to draw out the staples. Life is too short to remove every single staple from every single magazine.

geordie_joe

Horace wrote: »

Anyway in these paper recycling places they have magnets to draw out the staples. Life is too short to remove every single staple from every single magazine.

So why do they go apesh*t when you put a tin can in the paper bin?

morg_monster

geordie_joe wrote: »

So why do they go apesh*t when you put a tin can in the paper bin?

There's a certain level of contamination that the recycling mills will accept, its usually expressed as a percentage by weight. So 2 or 3 staples per magazine is fine and within that level, but if there's a few tin cans in the mix, that'll tip the balance over the edge - the paper mill would reject the deliver. So that means either someone has to fish them out before they get sent to the mill, or the whole lot goes in the landfill instead thus not contributing to the council's recycling target...

geordie_joe

morg_monster wrote: »

There's a certain level of contamination that the recycling mills will accept, its usually expressed as a percentage by weight. So 2 or 3 staples per magazine is fine and within that level, but if there's a few tin cans in the mix, that'll tip the balance over the edge - the paper mill would reject the deliver. So that means either someone has to fish them out before they get sent to the mill, or the whole lot goes in the landfill instead thus not contributing to the council's recycling target...

You should have read what I quoted from Horace, that was the bit I was referring to. Horace said

Anyway in these paper recycling places they have magnets to draw out the staples.

My point was, if they have magnets capable of pulling the staples out of magazines surely those magnets will also pick up tin cans?

Quite how a magnet would pull a staple out of a magazine is beyond me though. It would just pick up the whole magazine, unless there was someone hanging onto it. In that case it would be quicker and easier to give that person a staple remover.

I just can't see a recycling center paying someone to pick up each magazine and hanging onto it while a magnet comes along and pulls out the stapler.