Garden City Clarifies Guidelines For Recycling

GARDEN CITY, NY — In an effort to alleviate confusion about the village's recycling guidelines, Garden City Mayor Mary Carter Flanagan led her weekly newsletter on the topic.

She said it's important that items are placed in the green bin for recycling only.

"It not only interferes with accepted items being recycled, but it costs the Village more money," Flanagan wrote.

The village works with Omni Recycling for its reusable trash. However, "if that load is deemed 'contaminated' as a result of too many unaccepted items, the entire load is sent to a landfill, and the Village is charged a higher rate for disposal," she said.

Additionally, only certain plastics should be treated as recycling with the current program, including soda bottles and milk jugs. Among the unacceptable items are plastic bags and soap dispenser bottles.

It is important to the success of our local recycling program that residents are familiar with the information in our recycling guide and that they recycle right," the mayor said.

The village has not found an economical way to have curbside pick-up of cardboard.

Flanagan said they are evaluating "if properly collected it could even be a small source of revenue."