Basics of Good Recycling

It's time to get back to the basics of good recycling.  

The advent of single stream or putting all your recycling in a cart led many people to recycle more than they ever had before.  But having a big cart to throw everything into has led to higher contamination in the recycling.  Let's get back to basics and clean up our recycling habits.

The fact is that some recycling actions make a bigger impact than others.  Please remember these three basic rules the next time you recycle:

1. Recycle all empty plastic bottles, cans, paper cartons, clean paper and cardboard boxes.  See the list below for acceptable items.
2. Remove food debris, liquid, plastic film and greasy or hazardous items from your recycling.
3. Place recyclables directly in your cart.  Do not bag them.  (Paper bags are preferred if you need to use bags.)  Return plastic bags to a local grocer or retailer. 

You’d be amazed by how big of an impact just following these simple rules can have!  There are increasing amounts of non-recyclables being sent to recycling sorting facilities, and every single one of them must be removed by hand or mechanically sorted, or they end up contaminating valuable recyclables.  Non-recyclable items placed in recycling containers end up in the garbage, which increases the cost of the recycling process.  The right thing to do is put the correct recyclables in the containers and don’t hope or wish that the haulers can magically recycle them.  Avoid "wish-cycling".  When in doubt, throw it out.   Or see if there is a recycling option in our Recycling and Disposal Directory.