Are wire hangers recyclable?
Usually no
Not in your curbside bin — they tangle in the sorting machinery. They are good scrap steel though, so take them to a scrap yard, a drop-off site, or back to your dry cleaner.
What you need to do
- Keep them out of the curbside bin regardless of how metal they are
- Remove paper tubes, plastic sleeves and cardboard from the bar
- Bundle or twist a stack together so they travel as one object
Why the answer isn't simple
Three different questions hide inside "is this recyclable?" — and most pages only answer one of them.
Is the material recyclable? yes
What the stuff is made of, in principle.
A wire hanger is steel, usually with a thin coating. Scrap yards take them by weight without complaint, and steel is recycled at high rates because it is magnetic and therefore trivial to separate once it reaches the right place.
Will a sorting facility recover it? no
What actually happens on the line.
Long, thin and hooked is close to the worst possible shape for a sorting line. Hangers catch on rotating screens and wind around shafts, and the hook means several will link into a chain that has to be cut out by hand. Same failure as plastic bags, different material.
Source: Recycle Ann Arbor — wire hangers
Will your curbside program take it? rarely
Local policy, which is where answers diverge.
Programmes exclude them near-universally and point at drop-off sites or scrap yards instead. The metal is wanted; the route through a household bin is not.
Where else it can go
Back to the dry cleaner
Most dry cleaners take clean hangers back and reuse them directly, which beats melting them down.
Undamaged hangers only, and no paper or plastic sleeves.
Scrap metal yard or drop-off station
Accepted as scrap steel by weight. Worth bundling a stack together rather than making a trip for three.
Common mistakes
- Reasoning that steel is recyclable, therefore hangers go in the bin — the shape is the problem, not the metal
- Leaving the dry cleaner's plastic sleeve on