How do we recycle properly and why is it important?
Recycling is an important, and practical step we can do in our day-to-day lives that helps protect our local environment, ecosystems, and promotes sustainability of resources. Here are some tips/information to use in your life:
- Refuse, reduce, reuse, and then recycle.
- You should refuse single use items to reduce how much waste you create and try to reuse items as much as possible before recycling or throwing them out.
- Do not bag recycling!
- Plastic bags are often non-recyclable. Additionally, they will get caught in the sorting machinery which damages equipment and causes delays.
- Do not include items you are not sure about! When in doubt throw it out!
- An entire batch of recycling can be contaminated and will need to be thrown out by mixing in non-recyclable items.
- Be active in checking your local recycling programs!
- The specifics of recycling rules will vary depending on your community programs.
- Rinse before recycling!
- A single dirty item can contaminate an entire bin.
- Cardboard and paper products can’t be recycled once they contact food or liquid.
ECOPARK: For Items you don’t know how to recycle or don’t know if they are able to be recycled check out the ecopark website. On their website you can type in any item and they will tell you how to properly dispose of it.
“The ecopark is a partnership between Monroe County and Waste Management of NY that provides county residents with a “one-stop drop-off” to dispose of or recycle difficult to manage materials. The ecopark accepts items like electronics, scrap metal, clothing, foam packaging, pharmaceuticals, rechargeable batteries, and more. The Monroe County ecopark website will help you find local businesses and services that are available to manage specific items. Whether you choose to use the ecopark itself or any of the listed convenient vendors, you will be helping the environment by keeping these materials from our community’s waters and landfills.” -Waste Management
