Recycling Returns
Where Peterborough's recyclables actually go, who buys them, and what comes back. Built from town and state records, one material at a time.
Someone asked on a local Facebook thread whether there's still a reason to recycle. The honest answer turned out to be material by material. Here it is, with sources.
The short version
Glass
Most likely crushed into gravel and used in town. Ceramics go in the same bin, which rules out the bottle-to-bottle route.
Plastic bottles and jugs
#1 bottles were sold to a real buyer in 2023: 17 tons for $1,160. #2 jugs shipped nothing that year, probably stockpiled.
Plastic film
Bags and bubble wrap are collected on their own and almost certainly end up as composite lumber. How much of it makes it into a board is unknown.
Metal
The moneymaker. 206 tons of scrap sold in 2023 for $28,742, more than every other commodity combined.
Cardboard
Fully real. 116 tons sold in 2023 for $6,742, about $58 a ton, plus the disposal fee the town didn't pay.
Paper
Mixed paper still sells, at about $23 a ton, and newspaper sorted on its own brings four times that. Landfilling paper is the worst option because it makes methane.
Textiles and tires
Both sold in 2023. Textiles brought $1,228.50 for 12 tons; tires brought $1,969.80 for 8 tons.
Compost
Food scraps are composted on site and the finished compost is free to residents. Nine tons in 2023, tiny next to what the town generates. Never leaves town, by design.
What came back in 2023
| Material | Tons | Revenue | Per ton |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scrap metal | 206 | $28,742.00 | $140 |
| Corrugated cardboard | 116 | $6,742.26 | $58 |
| Mixed paper | 103 | $2,401.05 | $23 |
| Newspaper | 20 | $1,862.00 | $93 |
| PET (#1 plastic) | 17 | $1,160.25 | $68 |
| Textiles | 12 | $1,228.50 | $102 |
| Tires | 8 | $1,969.80 | $246 |
| Food waste (composted on site) | 9 | $0.00 | $0 |
| HDPE (#2 plastic) | 0 | $0.00 | |
| Aluminum cans | 0 | $0.00 | |
| Steel cans | 0 | $0.00 | |
| Total | 491 | $44,105.86 |
Tons and revenue are the town's published figures Town data. Per-ton is computed from them Inference. No glass line appears at all. Zero tons of HDPE, aluminum cans, and steel cans shipped, though all three are collected. Full breakdown and facility facts.
Where the money is
- Commodity sales
- $44,105.86 for 482 tons sold Town data
- Bag sales and disposal fees
- $129,024.13 Town data
- Disposal avoided
- Roughly $40,970: 482 tons sold instead of buried, at about $85 a ton to tip Inference
- All non-commodity revenue
- $151,899.13: bags, disposal fees, permits, and the Town of Sharon's share Town data
How to read this
Every claim carries one of those tags. Town data and state data are records. Press is the local paper. Background is general industry or science context. Inference is this site reasoning from the records, and it's labeled so you can weigh it yourself. More on the method, and the four Facebook claims checked one by one.
Latest
2026-09-06 Records request sent to NHDES pending. Findings log and open questions.