Can I recycle VHS tapes?

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It’s back! After a brief hiatus, our feature on the surprisingly complicated world of household recycling returns with a look at remnants of our tech past.

VHS tapes are made with a rigid polystyrene shell, which Los Angeles residents can recycle by itself in their blue bins. But the tape inside is made from a different material that tangles around recyclers’ sorting equipment and could cause machinery to break down. The city’s Bureau of Sanitation recommends reusing or donating VHS tapes as a first option or recycling them through a mail-in recycling service, such as Greendisk.com or NationwideRecycleByMail.com.

Because policies and recommendations can vary from city to city, each week we ask a sampling of officials from various municipalities to weigh in. Can you recycle VHS tapes in...

Burbank: No

Glendale: No

Long Beach: No

Los Angeles: Only the black tape casing, not the tape

Manhattan Beach: No

Riverside: No

Santa Monica: Only if brought to the Santa Monica Transfer Station and placed with e-waste

Torrance: No

Unincorporated L.A. County: Yes

Ventura: No

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Can I Recycle: the series archive in gallery form

-- Susan Carpenter