With the holidays coming up you'll want to make sure you know what can and cannot go into the recycling bin. Luckily there's a sticker on the blue recycling lid, showing you what you can recycle.
However, some of the things people put into their recycling bins may shock you...
Carly Norton, the Recycling Education Representative for WM of Northern Nevada tells us some of the things they find each year “Some things that people put in the recycling that cant go in there during the holidays are going to be snow tire chains, those need to go into scrap metal recycling just not the single stream recycling, and then Christmas lights we can't have in recycling either those need to go in the trash.”
Norton also says, long tangled items like lights get wrapped around their equipment and they have to go into the machine and pull out the mess manually because the machinery wouldn't be able to sort them properly. Not to mention, it takes the workers hours each day to dislodge those items.
Norton explains “We have to stop everything we have to let our workers climb in there, and it takes up hours in the day when it’s not necessary for us to do it.”
Things that can go into the recycling are items like:
- Aluminum
- Glass and Plastic bottles and jars
- Cardboard
However items that are not allowed to be recycled are:
- Plastic bags
- plastic films
- packing foams
If you recycle items that shouldn't be recycled, you'll first get a warning letter. But if it keeps happening then other actions could be taken...
Norton explains the consequences “We issue them a letter with a fine attached to it and then eventually we might take away their recycling cart if they keep going out of their way to contaminate the recycling bin.”
Norton says, usually people comply on the first notice, then give a courtesy call if they have additional questions. If something isn't allowed in the recycling, there's always a trash can as an alternative.
Norton tells us “You can keep recycling simple and easy by checking that sticker on the top of your recycling bin and making sure you take that very literally, what is said on the recycling bin those are the items that can go into the recycling cart anything else needs to go in the trash.”
