With Earth Day coming up on April 22, now’s a great time to increase your knowledge about recycling so you can do your part to help the environment. Thus, check out some important information about recycling. Then you’ll know what you can and can’t recycle and so much more.
Don’t Use the Bi-County Recycling Facilities for Plastic Bags
Montgomery County uses Bi-County Solid Waste Management for recycling. It doesn’t accept plastic bags, so don’t include them when dropping recyclables off at a community convenience center or the landfill. If you do, the bag will contaminate the recycling bin and damage the equipment. It’s even a problem if you dispose of recyclable items inside a plastic bag. In that instance, the staff might throw out the entire bag, meaning the recyclable items will also end up in a landfill.
However, you can recycle plastic bags by taking them to Walmart, Publix, Food Lion, Kroger, or Lowes. This is a great idea since it will keep the bags out of landfills. Thus, separate your plastic bags from your other recycles and take them to the appropriate locations.
Remove Small Items From Your Recyclables
Trash that’s smaller than a debit card shouldn’t be recycled. Unfortunately, small items can jam up the equipment and might lead to expensive repairs. You should always put the cap back on plastic bottles before recycling them. If you throw in the cap separately, it could cause the plant to shut down to fix broken equipment.
Don’t Recycle Combined Materials
Some packaging contains combined materials. For instance, disposable coffee cups often have a plastic coating. Recycling plants can’t separate the materials, so you’ll contaminate the bins by throwing these items inside. Thus, if something has more than one material, you need to throw it away instead of recycling it.
Only Recycle Clean and Dry Materials
You can also contaminate recycling bins by tossing in items that are wet or have food waste. As a general rule, clean the materials to the point that you’d feel comfortable using them again. If that’s not possible, you should compost or throw the items away instead of sending them to the recycling plant.
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Check the Number on Plastics
Rigid plastic items have resin identification codes to let you know what you can and can’t recycle. Like most other locations, Montgomery County accepts number one and number two plastics. Numbers higher than that are much more difficult to recycle, so you cannot drop them off in this county.
Now that you have more information, you’re ready to start recycling. Also, share the details with your friends and family. Then you can all pitch in on Earth Day and beyond.
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