Discussion: Is mylar recyclable?

Cleaning out the attic and wondering if old drawing mylar should go in the recycle box or the landfill.

Mylar is PET(E), recycle code "1", so should be recyclable.

It would probably still be useful for surveying work.

Surveying work? What's that?

I cannot speak to its recyclability, but if you find a full Mylar balloon in the woods, stomping on it produces a convincing gunshot sound.

Maybe not so useful if it has squiggly ink lines and rub-on transfers all over it.

If it is clean one-sided mylar, I know a couple mappers who still use it.

If it is used mylar, I'll let better experts than I weigh in on the recyclability of it.

Squiggly ink lines. Yes! Transfers. Yes! Text on paper from a typewriter. Yes!

Ah, typewritten (shrunk by a factor of two) legends and credits. Those were the days. I don't miss them.

The final mylar copy, drawn neatly with colored pencils, can make for attractive artwork when mounted over a white background. Or make a 20 by 30" art poster after scanning/digitizing your favorite mylar forest.

Entrepreneurs; laminate and make them into very interesting place mats - for some people...

There's a company somewhere in Germany (I think) that makes envelopes out of old survey maps. As far a I know, they do not use O maps, though.

Speaking of mylar I found a product that is better than mylar or maybe it is just mylar by a different name. It is called Vellum. It comes in pads of 50 9x12 sheets produced by a French company called Canson (Papiers d'inspiration depuis 1557)
It looks and feels a lot like mylar but the big difference between Vellum and my old mylar is that this paper is "not affected by repeated erasures". It is acid free, pH neutral.
The second biggest advantage for me is that, as I said, it comes in pads in pre-cut sheets. Those sheets just nicely fit my map boards.
The pads cost $24.95 or 50 cents a sheet.
The Vellum pads are available in artist supply stores. They also have a website.

Vellum's been around since forever, but it wasn't (isn't?) stable with temperature and/or water, therefore it was never used or recommended.
Has anything changed?
Perhaps you have an application where perfect stability isn't critical.
I've found paper to be satisfactory for short term revision mapping.

Vellum was widely used for drafting and graphics , but as EricW says, isn't stable or resistant to moisture. I much preferred it to mylar for drafting, but it couldn't be used for overlays where accurate registration or permanence is required. I did some drafting for land surveyors one time, and mylar wasn't even good enough for them. Linen, which I assume must even predate mylar, was required for drawing survey plans.

So, I wouldn't generally recommend it, but vellum is nice material to work with , and you might be able to use it for map boards, especially for small, quick maps where you are working without a basemap and registration isn't critical. Quality and thickness do vary, so that might be a factor, but isn't it more opaque than mylar as well?

Mylar is also available in precut sheets, not just rolls.

A vellum sheet goes out with me one day, maybe two at most. All the drafting is in OCAD. Registration has proven to be more than adequate and so is the transparency but thank you for the big head's up about moisture. I didn't know that so that's just another reason to not go mapping in the rain which it rarely does in Florida during the months I'm here anyway.

It's not just rain that's an issue, it's varying humdity levels.