What’s Appropriate for that Big Blue Recycling Bin?

Passing along the following from John Wolfinger regarding what’s appropriate – and what’s not – to place in your blue recycling bin:

The City of Atlanta is having problems with our recycling program, in that far too many city residents are placing items in the large blue recycling bins that are not intended to be there. The single stream recycler the city uses is spending way too much time separating all the garbage and trash from the recyclables. Evidently the biggest problem comes from the plastic shopping bags which tend to fly around and get caught in the conveyor lines. These bags can be taken to Publix stores for recycling.

If you are in doubt as to where to take certain items for recycling, check with www.earth911.com. This is a great website with all sorts of useful recycling information.

Also, the Keep Atlanta Beautiful recycling sessions in Buckhead and the Old 4th Ward continue to grow as more and more folks are bringing items to these convenient locations once every month. Go to www.keepatlantabeautiful.org for details. Even though it was a miserable rainy day this past Saturday, we had a great turnout on Irwin Street in the 4th Ward. Now is a great time to start accumulating items to bring in January – styrofoam from gifts packaging, old electronics being discarded in favor of new models, batteries, and old paperwork from income tax filings, left-over paint you will never use again, etc.

The more items that can be kept out of our green trash cans – the less money that the city has to spend on transportation to ship this trash to distant landfills. It is a matter of dollars and cents.

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The City of Atlanta and Mayor Reed are on a continued mission for Atlanta to become a top-tier recycling city and divert 90 percent of municipal solid waste by 2020.

In a statement to metro communities, the Department of Public Works said they want to, “ensure that all residents are a part of the effort to recycle more and protect our recycling stream from contamination.”

Here are the City of Atlanta’s “big three recycling reminders:”

– DO NOT put FOOD, YARD TRIMMINGS, CLOTHING/SHOES, GARBAGE, PLASTIC BAGS or STYROFOAM in the recycling carts (NO PIZZA BOXES)

– Keep the cart clean & dry! Rinse out all food containers

– Keep your cart lid closed AT ALL TIMES!

Also, please note that beginning this week, residents who have contaminated their recycling will receive a red “violation” sticker issued by Solid Waste Operators on their recycling cart, and a Contamination Notice door knocker will be issued by Solid Waste Supervisors. To ensure residents are aware of what is accepted and what is not, graphics are included on the back of the door knocker. By taking note of what actually can and cannot be recycled, we can help keep the recycling stream clean of contamination and working efficiently.