With the delivery of 1,435 blue recycling carts to our households as of the end of December, and the remaining 650 to be delivered in January, the Public Works Department has received a number of questions about what is or is not recyclable. The “YES” and “NO” decals on the top of every cart show in broad terms what is recyclable. However, some household items are not covered by the decals. The lists below are copied from the website of our contracted recycling contractor, Curbie, and can be found at http://www.curbie.com/ .
What may I recycle?
Metal Cans
Only food, beverage, personal care or household plastic containers (jugs, tubs, bottles and jars)
- Glass Bottles and Jars (clear, brown, green)
- Milk & Juice Cartons
- Juice Boxes
Mixed Paper
- Newspapers and inserts
- Catalogs
- Junk mail
- Magazines
- Cereal boxes
- Egg cartons (paper)
- Envelopes
- Manila envelopes
- Office paper
- Paper
- Phone books
- Glossy paper
- Post-It-Notes
- Brown paper bags
- Paper towel rolls
Lay flat under cart if there is not room inside the cart:
What cannot be recycled?
- No Plastic Shopping Bags
- No Plastic Garbage Bags
- No Plastic Film
- No Cereal Liner Bags
- No Ziplock or Sandwich Bags
- No Dry Cleaning Bags
- No Shrink Wrap
- No Plastic Bubble Wrap
- No Chip Bags
- No Plastic Six-Pack Beverage Rings
- Strapping around packages
- Wires from appliances
Plastic bags and strapping clogs up Curbie's recycling machinery, and cause wasted time and equipment damage. Plastic bags and other film plastic are very difficult for Curbie to handle in our Material Recovery Facility. Please keep plastic bags out of recycling carts and drop-off bins. They clog up our equipment and can cause a lot of wasted time and even equipment damage. At least twice a day, we have to shut the entire sorting facility down and send in people with box cutters to cut the plastic bags out by hand.
If you use bags to collect recycling around your house or office, we encourage you to please empty the items into the cart, but do not include the bag. Better yet, use a tub, box or bucket to collect recycling and reuse it each week.
Because we love to recycle, we hate to turn anything away, but there actually ARE some things we can’t accept at Curbie. Here are the top ten items that Curbie receives but can’t accept:
- Plastic Bags
- Paper towels
- Aluminum foil
- Black microwaveable trays
- Plastic film (bubble wrap, plastic wrap)
- Styrofoam / packing peanuts
- Dishes
- Mirror and window glass
- Motor Oil bottles
- Metal items that are not cans-- like frying pans/pots
Why does the driver leave some materials in the recycling bin?
Unfortunately, not everything is recyclable. There are certain things like Styrofoam, pizza boxes, and plastic bags that the program cannot accept and the driver may leave these items in your cart and/or hang an “OOPS” tag on your blue cart to remind you to be careful with your recycling. Be sure you know which items are accepted so that you place only the proper items in the carts. Non-recyclable items in the recycling carts are considered contaminants. These contaminants will require extra sorting and may result in the rejection of an entire load of recyclables.
If you have any questions about the new blue recycling carts or recycling in general, you can contact Curbie at 828.252.2532 or the Public Works Department at 828.645.0606.
