Patch Primer: Recycling

You've brought those blue bins into your home and there they sit, next to your trash can, mocking your inability to read the number on the plastic you hold in your hand. Is it recyclable? Does it need to be clean? Unsure, you drop the container, the aluminum foil, whatever it may be, in your trash can.

Across Montgomery County, last year's recycling rate is 44 percent – that's the percent of waste removed from county homes, business and work sites that are recycled. That's 495,000 tons of pizza boxes, plastic bottles and newspaper.

Not bad, but not quite the 50% goal that the Department of Solid Waste Services sets for itself. But what can and can't be recycled is decided on by what items have market for recycling into other goods.

"We need to ensure there's a steady market for the item," Alan Pultyniewicz, Coordinator of Recycling at DSWS said, "Or else we can't take it."

The county has contracts with different recycling centers on the east coast. After doing an initial sort at the recycling facility in Derwood, glass, plastic and paper go their separate ways. 

Recently, new items have been added to the list, including frozen food containers, coated paper items, like juice boxes, kitty litter containers and aerosol cans that held non-hazardous items (think whipped cream instead of DW-40).

Most kinds of paper, including magazines, envelopes with and without windows and the old standby of cardboard, can be recycled, as long as they are in separate bin from all the other recycling.

Scrap metal, including items like dishwashes, are recyclable. But don't try and stuff your clothes dryer into the blue bin. Instead call to Solid Waste Services department (through 311) a business day before your normal recycling pick up to schedule a pickup.

"People assume because its not left in the bin, that we accept it, " said Pultyniewicz. 

But just because you don't find the plastic grocery bags in your bin after the pickup doesn't mean its being recycled. In fact, the removal of items to the trash happens at the recycling process plant, where the commingled items – i.e. anything that isn't paper – goes through a multi-step sorting process, including removing items that can't be recycled. Montgomery County does not recycle plastic bags right now, but you often can bring them to grocery stores to recycle them.

Still in doubt? Call the department at 311 or chat with them on twitter @TalkinTrashMC .