Is it better to recycle or compost?

Greasy or soiled cardboard and paper can be composted, but you have to shred them up. Although paper and cardboard will decompose, too much of them will disrupt the composting process. Send dry paper and cardboard to recycling.

BTW, milk cartons should not go in the compost bin.

I know they can be composted.
But if I can clean them, is it better to recycle?

Also, our county has a compost and food scrap program. Just goes into a specially-designated compost bin that the city picks up.

Grease and meat are not good compost so I would clean it.

From what we are told in San Francisco, it is better to compost if at all possible. Keeping out of the recycling stream is cheaper and less complicated.

They won’t recycle it if it has grease on it, at all.

I would think recycle the container and compost the food remains.

What kind of food container is it? That is important to know. But generally I only compost paper related containers. Food, leaves, go to composting, otherwise re. conainers, reuse first when possible, and then recycle.
I don’t think a lot of people reuse.

@njnyjobs I thought so too. But I looked it up online and it depends on the individual company policies. Luckily, our county does.

@jaytkay Should I not compost greasy food scraps either?

@zenvelo Thanks!

@XOIIO Not even a spot? You know how some food to go will come on some foil, then they put it in a container? Barely soiled. What do you mean by at all?

@marinelife What’s your thinking behind recycling before composting (for the container)? Hoping to hear both sides to this…

@flo Not asking whether a certain container can be composted. If it can be recycled AND/OR composted, which is the better choice?

I’ll go with composting, since it involves less cost.

Apprently.

I am not sure how long the container would take to degrade, and whether it would fully degrade.

Just in case anyone else might be interested,
I found an older question with some good responses.