Cans, foil, plastic bottles and tubs, glass bottles and jars, and paper and flattened cardboard. All of it loose, not in bags, and emptied out first. No plastic bags, no styrofoam, no food-soiled paper.
Five things go in the blue tote, all of them loose, never in a bag:
The reason everything goes in loose is that the sorting facility opens nothing. A bagged bundle of perfectly good recycling gets pulled off the line and landfilled as trash, because a closed bag could contain anything.
Plastic bags are the biggest single problem in recycling. They wind around the spinning sorting equipment and the plant has to stop and cut them out by hand. Grocery bags go back to the store, not in your tote.
Also out: styrofoam, food-soiled paper and cardboard such as greasy pizza boxes, plastic utensils, hoses and cords, clothing and linens, and anything with food still in it. Here is what happens when the wrong thing goes in.
The complete list is on what goes in your totes, and more on how we collect it on the recycling page.
We answer the phone Monday to Friday, 6:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. If your question is about your own address, a call is always faster than a form.
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