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Recycling
Made Easy

♻️ Know What to Recycle

Only put accepted materials in your recycling container.

  • Paper and cardboard
  • Metal cans
  • Plastic bottles and jugs

Keeping the wrong items out helps reduce contamination and ensures more materials get recycled.

Paper & Cardboard

♻️ Paper & Cardboard

You can recycle flattened cardboard, newspapers, magazines, office paper, and regular mail. Make sure that they are clean and free of food, liquid, or waste.


Helpful Tips:

  • Flatten boxes before recycling to save space and make processing easier.
  • Keep paper dry and uncontaminated. Once it is soiled, it cannot be recycled.
  • Remove extras like bubble wrap or plastic windows from padded envelopes before tossing them in the bin.
Metal Cans

♻️ Metal Cans

You can recycle aluminum and steel food or drink cans. Just remove any labels and empty out leftover contents first.


Helpful Tips:

  • Give cans a quick rinse to remove residue. Then let them dry completely to prevent contamination.
  • Check for coating. Cans have insulated linings that cannot be recycle. If you are unsure, it is best to toss it out.
  • No need for perfection! Cans do not need to be spotless; just clean, and dry.
Plastic Cleaning Bottles With Spray Nozzle And Blue Cap

♻️ Plastic

You can recycle rigid plastic containers such as water bottles, milk jugs, and detergent bottles.
However, flexible plastics like grocery bags, bubble wrap, and Styrofoam, require special recycling programs and cannot be placed in your curbside bin.


Helpful Tips:

  • Keep lids attached to bottles and jugs. Loose caps are too small to recycle on their own.
  • Do the poke test. If you can push your finger through the plastic, it does not belong in your recycling container.
  • Skip the soft stuff. Only hard, rigid plastics should go in the bin.
Blue And Yellow Plastic Bottles With Caps Off

♻️ No Soiled or Wet Materials

Keep recyclables empty, clean, and dry. Even a small amount of contamination can ruin a whole load of recycling.


Helpful Tips:

  • Avoid moisture and food residue. Once paper or cardboard gets wet or soiled it cannot be recycled.
  • Empty all liquids. No more than a teaspoon of liquid should remain in any recyclable.
  • Quickly rinse, then dry. Clean items help ensure everything in your bin gets recycled.
Blue Trash Bag With A Gray No Symbol Over It

♻️ Do not Bag or Bundle

Always place recyclables directly in your recycling container, never put them in bags or other containers.


Why:

  • Plastic bags and containers can jam machinery causing delays or damage.
  • Bundled items cannot be sorted at the facility, so they often end up in a landfill.
  • Keep Materials Separate.
  • Mixed materials cannot be recycled together, even if each part is recyclable.
Tree Growing Inside Light Bulb Representing Green Energy

Tips for Sorting:

  • Separate connected materials, like a plastic insert in a paper envelope, before recycling.
  • Recycle only the recyclable portion. For example, remove the plastic window from an envelope and recycle just the paper.
  • Never bag your recycling. Separately place individual items info the bin for proper processing.
Trash vs Recycling (Know the Difference)

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Trash vs Recycling (Know the Difference)
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Recycling guidelines

Residential or Commercial Single Stream Recycling

Download The PDF >

ACCEPTED
Aluminum & Steel Food & Beverage Containers Aluminum Baking Tins Cardboard Boxes Pizza Boxes
Shoe, Cereal, Tissue & Other Packaging Boxes Soda, Beer & Other Drink Box Cartons All Junk Mail Kraft Paper (Grocery & Lunch Bags)
Mixed Paper (Calendars, School Papers & Other Forms) All Other Paper (Computer Paper, Phone Books, Books) Catalogs Newspapers & Inserts
#1 Plastic Soda and Water Bottles #2 Plastic Milk Jugs, Juice Bottles & Other Rigid Containers #3 Through #7 Plastic Bottles & Containers Magazines
NOT RECYCLABLE
Any items not on the accepted recycling list must be placed in your trash container. Items that are not accepted but placed in the recycling container ultimately end up in the landfill. Over time, this increases recycling costs, as these items must be transported to the recycling center, sorted, rejected, and then transported again to the landfill.
Helene Care Package Donations Pamphlet
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