How to Use unrecyclable in a Sentence

unrecyclable

adjective
  • Housed in a plastic bottle—often fully or partly unrecyclable.
    — National Geographic, 18 Apr. 2019
  • The risk is that devices like old iPads could become unrecyclable, at least in economic terms, for scrap companies that aren't getting paid some other way.
    — Anchorage Daily News, 12 Sep. 2018
  • Executives admit the new cup isn’t perfect — it’s still lined with plastic, rendering it unrecyclable by most standards — and the lid is still plastic as well.
    — BostonGlobe.com, 15 Nov. 2019
  • The goal would be to significantly reduce the production of unrecyclable plastics and take them out of products and material value chains.
    — The Arizona Republic, 3 May 2023
  • In both cases, be sure to remove the lid or any pumps, which are often made of a different material or unrecyclable combinations of materials.
    — Neeti Mehra, Treehugger, 7 Feb. 2023
  • Many toothbrushes are unrecyclable because the composite plastics most are now made of are difficult, if not impossible, to break apart efficiently.
    — National Geographic, 14 June 2019
  • While recycling cotton-poly blends would take a big bite out of the apparel industry’s overall waste problem, the materials in more technical apparel are, as of yet, unrecyclable.
    — Laura Onstot, Outside Online, 6 Apr. 2021
  • The company’s mission is recycling the previously unrecyclable, such as cigarette butts, contact lenses and chewing gum.
    — Laura Daily, Washington Post, 25 June 2019
  • Lawmakers heard testimony for the bill on Monday evening, which also includes converting many homes with unrecyclable septic tanks for wastewater to the county’s recyclable sewage system in the coming decades.
    — Gabe Stern, BostonGlobe.com, 14 Mar. 2023
  • The change did also nudge many US cities to improve their recycling infrastructure to accept previously unrecyclable goods, like pizza boxes, but San Francisco leads the way.
    — Nathan Mattise, Rolling Stone, 15 Oct. 2021
  • Single stream is convenient and may encourage broader participation, but contamination can render materials unrecyclable.
    — Nara Schoenberg, Chicago Tribune, 6 Oct. 2022
  • Officials said a contributing factor is people mistakenly trying to recycle plastic bags and not rinsing their plastics, glass and metal — leading to contamination that makes materials unrecyclable and increases costs for local governments.
    — David Eggert, Detroit Free Press, 23 Apr. 2019
  • The ocean protection agency suggested that California move this year to prohibit the sale and distribution of cigarette filters, electronic cigarettes, plastic cigar tips, and unrecyclable tobacco product packaging.
    — James Rainey, Los Angeles Times, 23 Feb. 2022
  • That includes improving waste collection and recycling, redesigning products to eliminate packaging made from unrecyclable plastics, expanding refillables, and in some cases substituting other materials.
    — Laura Parker, National Geographic, 6 Oct. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'unrecyclable.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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