Now that I’m all into recycling and stuff, I find I have questions that the flyers from the City Of Ottawa can’t answer. Does anyone know if the following are recyclable?
- metal tops/bottoms from frozen juice cans
- window envelopes
- kleenex boxes — I always tear out the plastic part at the top, but Kleenex brand tissues now come with a plastic label that wraps under the cardboard seam and can’t be removed
- corrugated cardboard boxes with packing tape/scotch tape on it
- boxboard boxes that contained food (specifically, Tim Hortons timbit boxes that may have traces of sugary goodness smeared on the inside)
- pizza boxes with oily stains where the pizza was
Any thoughts would be appreciated!
TurtleHead 
I recycle all of that stuff. Most recycling gets sent to sorting facilities first, where they are able to separate the various substances through automated means.
Just throw it all in and let the pro’s figure it out, that’s what I say. It’s better than putting it in the garbage.
Google “single stream recycling” for some interesting stuff.
For years I’ve recycled envelopes with plastic windows — someone, somewhere, a long time ago told me it was OK, and that has been good enough for me ever since! Same goes for the scotch tape/packing tape. I think the juice can tops & bottoms should be fine.
As for the last two, our city’s recyling instructions are clear that those should go in the green bin for composting and not in recycling.