Can You Recycle Those Pesky Wire Hangers?
Over the years, you may have amassed a collection of flimsy wire hangers in your closet over the years of dry cleaning winter coats. As it turns out, these hangers have a long history. In a short story for Vox, writer Dan Green recently dived deeply into the origins of the wire hanger – a story dating back to the Industrial Revolution – and one of the main takeaways from the story is clear: They’re not easily thrown away.
Why? As we wrote earlier , hangers are generally difficult to dispose of, depending on the material they are made from. (Wooden ones, for example, may have varnish that makes them impossible to recycle properly.) Wire hangers, in particular, can easily get stuck in recycling equipment, forcing workers to remove them by hand and delaying the sorting process itself. Worse, they are everywhere, such as in hotel rooms and dry cleaners, often as a cheaper solution compared to wood or plastic.
Where will it leave you? Well, you have some options. First, depending on your city, your roadside recycling may take them; in New York, metal hangers can be disposed of if they are mostly metal. In San Francisco , however, you are not so lucky. To be sure, you should search the Internet for the rules of your pavement recycling program. If this does not help , you can use the search Earth911 locator, to find the nearest object, such as scrap metal recycler that can accept them. (Search for “metal wire hangers” and include your zip code.)
An easier option is to simply take any spare wire hangers to a dry cleaner, who will most likely accept them for reuse. (You can even check with your local thrift store, who can benefit from the hangers.) Want to reduce the amount of plastic waste you also get with dry cleaning? Here’s a hint .