Technologies

Don’t Make These Mistakes When Recycling Paper and Cardboard

There are some cases where you shouldn’t toss your boxes straight into a recycling bin. We’ll explain.

Are you recycling your cardboard boxes? If you’re like me, you always have a ton of boxes from receiving weekly meal kits or having lazy pizza nights. You might toss them into a recycling bin and never think about them again. But not all boxes and paper can be recycled.

Here’s an example: the pizza boxes you’ve been «recycling» are actually getting thrown away by employees at the recycling center (more below). The same goes for the glossy wrapping paper you thought would be fine to put into the paper recycling.

According to the St. Charles County recycling center, 1 billion trees’ worth of paper is thrown in the trash annually, in the US alone. I spoke with some recycling experts and here’s what I found about the right way to recycle paper and cardboard.

How to recycle cardboard

There’s a right way to recycle your paper and cardboard. For example, you can recycle an Amazon box, but not a greasy pizza box. This is because the oils from the pizza saturate the cardboard, making it unrecyclable. It’s not completely impossible to recycle contaminated boxes. A recycling center employee told CNET to cut out the part of the cardboard that has residue on it. You can place the soiled partin your compost bin.

Before you bring the cardboard to your nearest recycling center or put it in a bin for pickup, break the boxes down so that they’re lying flat. This helps make more room in the bin and helps the recycling team to easily put the cardboard into their processing machines. Also, remove all contents from the inside, like bubble wrap.

Also, if you’re placing cardboard into a recycling bin without a lid, make sure it’s covered in case it rains. Wet cardboard can clog up the machines, causing an entire batch of cardboard to become contaminated.

If possible, remove the tape from the boxes before taking the cardboard to the recycling center, as well. Saving the employees a step can help make the recycling process more efficient.

The Environmental Protection Agency suggests checking with your local recycling provider for the proper way to recycle cardboard to ensure you’re following their standards.

How to recycle paper

Just like cardboard, there are certain types of paper you shouldn’t recycle. For example, the paper towel you used to wipe up spilled milk or gift wrap with a glossy finish. The EPA recommends looking for paper that has already been recycled when you go shopping so you know that the paper can be recycled again.

When it comes time to recycle the paper you’ve used, avoid getting it wet as it reduces the value in the recycling market. Instead, keep it separate from other recyclables, like anything that could leak liquid. Also, wait until the morning of pickup to take the paper out to the curb if your bin doesn’t have a lid to prevent it from becoming wet due to rain.

Also, many recycling companies won’t accept shredded paper because it can get stuck in the machinery, so avoid shredding your paper. Instead, if there are confidential documents you want to recycle, like bank statements, use a marker to mark out important information.

What else can I do?

Recycling is one way to help reduce waste, but there are other ways to prevent it in the first place.

Limit your use of paper.
Reuse cardboard boxes or donate them to someone who will use them — for example, someone who’s moving.
See if the companies sending you boxes will take them back for reuse.
Reuse gift bags and tissue paper, and consider using paper gift wrap.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Wednesday, March 11

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 11.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I thought it was a bit tricky. 1-Down is one of those old-fashioned comic-book sounds that I had to remember how to spell correctly. Read on for all the answers. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Study of the human mind, informally
Answer: PSYCH

6A clue: Common fixture in a gym bathroom
Answer: SCALE

7A clue: Kinda boring
Answer: HOHUM

8A clue: Like a commenter without a username, for short
Answer: ANON

9A clue: «All good between us?»
Answer: WEOK

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Old-fashioned «Yeah, right!»
Answer: PSHAW

2D clue: Coffeehouse pastry
Answer: SCONE

3D clue: Google alternative
Answer: YAHOO

4D clue: Sound of a dull thump
Answer: CLUNK

5D clue: Line on the bottom of a pant leg
Answer: HEM

Technologies

OnePlus and Oppo to Raise Smartphone Prices as Memory Costs Climb

Oppo says rising costs for key phone components will trigger price adjustments on some devices starting March 16.

Chinese smartphone-makers OnePlus and Oppo plan to raise prices on some existing models starting next week, according to a 9to5Google report citing GizmoChina and a notice posted on Oppo’s China online store.

In its notice, Oppo said it would adjust pricing after evaluating rising costs for several key components used in its mobile phones. The changes are expected to take effect around March 16 and will affect some of the company’s more affordable smartphones, as well as some OnePlus models.

Flagship devices — like those in the Find and Reno series — are not expected to be affected for now. The reported adjustments currently appear to be limited to China.

The move highlights growing pressure across the smartphone supply chain as component costs climb. Analysts say prices for memory and storage chips used in phones have been rising in recent months as demand surges across the tech industry.

Much of the chip demand is coming from the rapid buildout of AI data centers, which rely on large amounts of high-performance memory.

That pressure isn’t limited to Oppo and OnePlus. Analysts say smartphone brands across the industry are facing rising component costs amid increased demand for memory chips.

As manufacturers shift production toward higher-margin memory used in AI servers, supply for consumer electronics such as smartphones and laptops can tighten.

If component costs continue to rise, manufacturers may face difficult choices later this year, including raising retail prices or adjusting device specifications to offset higher manufacturing costs.

OnePlus and Oppo didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Technologies

Harvard Business Review Study Finds ‘AI Brain Fry’ Is Leaving Workers Mentally Fatigued

Study participants reported increased mental fatigue while using AI tools, but less burnout overall.

Workers who excessively use AI agents and tools at work are at increased risk of mental fatigue, according to a recent Harvard Business Review study. In certain industries, more than 25% of hired professionals report increased mental strain due to their role in AI oversight — though these professionals also generally experienced less burnout than peers who aren’t using AI.

This phenomenon — which the researchers refer to as «AI brain fry» — is described as a «‘buzzing’ feeling or a mental fog» that caused study participants to develop headaches and difficulty focusing and making decisions. Individuals pointed to being overwhelmed by large amounts of information and to frequent task switching as the reasons for these feelings.

Studied individuals experienced more brain fry when they utilized AI agents to manage a workload beyond their own cognitive capacity. When participants used AI to replace mundane, repetitive tasks, managing the growing number of tools led to increased mental fatigue.

Crucially, the study found that fewer individuals who used these AI agents reported workplace burnout.

The researchers predict that this is because burnout testing assesses emotional and physical distress. In contrast, they report, acute mental fatigue «is caused by marshalling attention, working memory and executive control beyond the limited capacity of these systems.»

These are the processes that are taxed when study participants use multiple AI tools in their workflow, according to the researchers.

The Harvard study identifies several business costs incurred by workers suffering from AI brain fry. The foremost consequence is that these individuals may end up making lower-quality decisions. «Workers in [the] study who endorsed AI brain fry experience 33% more decision fatigue than those who did not,» the study reports. Workers who report AI brain fry were also more likely to self-report making both minor and major errors at their jobs.

Another recent Harvard Business Review study similarly found that employees who use AI tools «worked at a faster pace, took on a broader scope of tasks and extended work into more hours of the day,» but warned that «workload creep can in turn lead to cognitive fatigue, burnout and weakened decision-making.»