Get Answers to Your Recycling Questions About St. Louis County

Eco-Audrey was overwhelmed with the amount of comments on her recent blog posts, and wanted to take some space to answer some questions that have risen.

In a recent blog post, Tony Rivera directed people to "recycling's dirty dozen" at www.ecocycle.org/dirtydozen. Like politics, everything is local! What may be true for Boulder CO (where the recycling dirty dozen emanates) may very well not be true for St. Louis. After talking to some of the areas recycling processors, Eco-Audrey is here to dispel some of these myths for the St. Louis region and get down to just the "Dirty Five" (I know it doesn't sound as cool, or roll off of the tongue like the dirty dozen, but I'm coining that phrase)

1. NO shredded paper. Shredding paper does not make paper un-useable at the paper recycling mills. It is however, best contained in a tied up clear plastic bag. Clear so the processors can see what is inside and remove the bag at the beginning of the sorting process. Tied up so shredded paper isn't blown throughout your neighborhood on recycling pickup days.

2. NO materials in plastic bags. See above. Clear plastic bags for shredded paper are the only time we recommend using plastic bags.

3. NO flattened containers. Flattened containers can still be properly sorted in St. Louis.

4. NO frozen food containers. Area recycling centers accept frozen food containers.

5. NO caps or lids on bottles or jars. It is not necessary to remove lids or labels off of containers in the St. Louis area.

There you have it. Five rules that do not apply to St. Louis.

Greasyindian asked "What is St. Louis County's budget for recycling? As in, we pay for our recycling containers, but how much money does the County bring in from selling the recycling?" St. Louis County does not sell recyclable material. We leave that to private industry. However, our recycling programs are funded through a landfill surcharge fee. The fee was approved by St. Louis County voters to encourage diverting waste from landfills. So technically, the more material that gets recycled, the less money our program gets to promote recycling.

A lot of commenters asked to see the results of the survey Eco-Audrey quoted on a previous post. I am working on getting it posted at www.RecycleSaintLouis.com. Eco-Audrey does not own the rights to that survey. I was just privy to the results. Once I work out the details, I will post the results.

If you have any questions, leave a comment, and I will do my best to answer it.

Eco-Audrey is the fictional face of St. Louis County's Recycling Becomes Me campaign. Although Audrey is not real the writer from St. Louis County most certainly is.