Flipping The Lid To Help Watsonville Residents With Recycling

From City of Watsonville:

March 10, 2020

Every day, we throw away tons of garbage into the recycling bins. When this happens, the facility that processes Watsonville’s recycling has to bury it in their landfill, and charges us additional fees.

When this garbage, such as food scraps, diapers, plastic bags, wrappers, and old clothes is mixed with good recyclables it is impossible to recycle. When this happens, the facility that processes Watsonville’s recycling has to bury it in their landfill, and charges us additional fees. To reduce contamination charges, City staff, Cecilia Magdaleno, is out early in the mornings flipping our lids! In other words, she is inspecting our recycling bins to ensure residents are separating their waste correctly. When she finds items that are not recyclable, she leaves an ‘oops’ tag on the bin that explains which items did not belong Residents who repeatedly dispose of the wrong items in their recycling bins are charged additional contamination fees of $25.55.

What Can You Do?

Remember the top 5 most recyclable items and leave out the rest:

• Metal Cans

• Glass Bottles and Jars

• Plastic Bottles

• Plastic Containers

• Clean Paper and Cardboard

This press release was produced by City of Watsonville. The views expressed here are the author’s own.