The Western Lake Superior Sanitary District gets a lot of questions about what to do with “weird waste.”

Emma Pardini, the environmental program coordinator, helps people figure out what’s recyclable and what belongs in the trash.

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Textiles are a big category.

“If the things are still in good quality, we want to donate them to somebody else who can use them,” Pardini said. “A good rule of thumb is if you’d give it to your neighbor or your cousin, then probably somebody would love to see it at a place like Savers or Goodwill.”

She said even if there is some damage, Goodwill has some textile recycling programs to break things down into rags or even insulation for items like dog beds.

There is also a textile recycling box at the WLSSD Materials Recovery Center off of Rice Lake Rd. They also have a Fix-It Clinic coming up from 3:30-6 p.m. June 8 at the Duluth Folk School. Volunteers will teach people how to repair items like appliances, clothes, jewelry, or tools.

Pill bottles, Pardini says, are not great to put in a recycling bin because they’re so small.

“You can think about it like this: There are different sorts of sorting mechanisms at a recycling facility. And anything that is about smaller than the palm of your hand, anything that could fit through a hole the size of the palm of your hand, it’s probably going to get mis-sorted or lost in the works,” she said.

She suggests a business in Proctor called Replay Workshop that turns pill bottles into niche goods like wearable art and game pieces.

The cardboard, however, that makes up shipping boxes is highly recyclable, even with a small amount of tape on it.

“Cardboard is welcome in your recycling bin,” Pardini said. “We just ask that you break it down flat because that makes it easier to sort.”

Pardini answers more weird waste questions on WLSSD’s Facebook page.