Recyclables
PETE Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) - Soda & water containers, some waterproof packaging. Recycling PET is similar to the polyethylenes (PE). Bottles may be color sorted and are ground up and washed. Unlike polyethylene, PET sinks in the wash water while the plastic caps and labels are floated off. The clean flake is dried and often repelletized.
Recycled PET has many uses and well established market for this useful resin. By far, the largest usage is in textiles. Carpet companies can often use 100% recycled resin to manufacture polyesther carpets in a variety of colors and textures. PET is also spun like cotton candy to make fiber filling for pillows, quilts and jackets. PET can also be rolled ito clear sheets or ribbon for VCR and audio cassettes. In addition a substantial quantity goes back into the bottle market.
HDPE High-Density Polyethylene - Milk, detergent & oil bottles, Toys and plastic bags. HDPE is called natural since that is it's natural color, and it is the most valuable because it can be made into any color when it is recycled. Other products are often packed in brightly colored bottles whiched are mixed together at recycling plants into mixed color or rainbow bales. Most of this material is later dyed black after it is processed. 
Paper
White Office Paper
One of the highest grades of paper is white office paper. Acceptable are clean white sheets from the likes of laser printers and copy machines. Colored, contaminated, or lower grade paper is not acceptable. The wrappers the paper comes in are of lower grade, and not acceptable. Staples are OK. White office paper may be downgraded, and recycled with mixed paper.
Newspapers
Newspaper is widely available and of uniform consistency, which makes it valuable. The entire newspaper including inserts acceptable, except for things like plastic, product samples and rubber bands. Newspapers may be stuffed in large brown grocery sacks, or tied with natural-fiber twine. Other brown paper bags may be mixed with newspaper.
Phone books
Some phone books are made with a special glue that breaks down in water, while other phone books use a glue that interferes with recycling. Printed in your phone book should be information on the source and type of paper used, the nature of the binding, and where locally phone books can be recycled. Note that many phone companies continue to use virgin rain forest to produce directories. In many communities phone books are only accepted during the time new directories are distributed.
Waxed cartons (Milk, juice)
Milk cartons are plastic laminated inside, even if they don't have a plastic spout.
Mixed Paper
Mixed paper is a catch-all for types of paper not specifically mentioned above. Everything you can imagine from magazines to packaging is acceptable. The paper must still be clean, dry, and free of food, most plastic, wax, and other contamination. Staples are OK.
Remove plastic wrap, stickers, product samples, and those pointless "membership" cards, and most junk mail can be recycled as mixed paper. Due to new technology, plastic window envelopes and staples are generally OK.
Paper that can't be recycled
Paper that can't be recycled as normal "mixed paper" includes: food contaminated paper, waxed paper, waxed cardboard milk & juice containers, oil soaked paper, carbon paper, sanitary products or tissues, thermal fax paper, stickers and plastic laminated paper such as fast food wrappers, juice boxes, and pet food bags.
Paper with any sort of contamination or plastic layers can't be recycled. Plastic laminated paper is bad for recycling plants; such paper should be clearly marked
Aluminum Cans
How, exactly are the cans recycled ? After collection and processing the aluminum UBC ( Used Beverage Cans) are shipped by truck, railcar or sea container to smelting plants. The bales of cans are unloaded and tested for quality and moisture content. After inspection, the bales of cans are broken up in a shredder into small pieces. These shredded cans are then conveyed into a De-lacquering oven to remove the paint and residual moisture. The hot shredded aluminum is then passed over a small screen to remove and dirt and contaminants and fed directly into a reverbatory furnace. Heated to 1400 degrees Fahrenheit ( 650 Centigrade) the cans melt and blend in with the molten metal already in the furnace. A mixture of salt and KFl are added as a flux to help separate out any oxides (dross) that are skimmed off.
Molten aluminum is checked for proper chemistry and then tapped ( removed) from the furnace and poured into large molds that cast sheet ingots. These large rectangular ingots ( 20 to 40,000 lbs each) are allowed to cool and harden. When they are needed, the top and bottom surface of the sheet ingot ( alloy 3105) is milled to a smooth surface in a process called "Scalping". The scalped ingot is then passed between two giant steel rollers in a large rolling mill. The sheet is passed through a few more times until it is about 1/2 an inch (1.25 Cm) thick and maybe 1000 feet (300 meters)long. This long sheet is then annealed to soften it and passed to a series of rollers in a finishing mill where it acquires the necessary hardness and thickness. The edges are trimmed in a slitter and the coil is rolled up for shipment to a can manufacturer. The finished coil may be 2 miles (3 kilometers)long and made from over 1.2 million recycled cans.
If not properly recycled, an aluminum can will still be on the surface of the earth after 500 years. Aluminum recycling can reduce air pollution by 95%. It can save 90% to 95% of the energy required to manufacture aluminum from recycled aluminum cans than from aluminum core.
If each person recycles one aluminum can in each month, 1,750 to 3,500 gallons of gas can be saved
(OCC) Old Corrugated Cardboard
Corrugated boxes, also called old corrugated containers (OCC), are used to store, ship, protect and identify goods. A corrugated box has flat, outer sheets of dense fiber which sandwich an inner ruffled or "corrugated" layer.
Corrugated recycling and reuse have been practiced since the 1880s, due to the material's durability, relatively low reprocessing cost and high value. Made from trees, it's a resource too valuable to waste.
