King County Tests New Recycling Program At 10 Grocery Stores

SEATTLE — Local grocers around King County are helping test out a new program to help residents more easily dispose of tricky items that are not accepted via curbside recycling. Announced last week on "Global Recycling Day," the new effort provides and empties new blue bins specifically for recycling plastic wraps, bags and film packaging.

King County's Solid Waste Division partnered with Seattle Public Utilities and 10 grocery stores around the region to try it out, with hopes of cutting down on improper recycling of things that can be confusing, like plastic wrap, sealable food bags, bubble wrap and e-commerce packaging.

"Now it's as easy as a trip to the store to give old plastic bags and bubble mailers new life as products made of clean recycled materials," said Andy Smith, with the King County Solid Waste Division. "This pilot will offer insights on ways to put good recyclable materials back into the economy where they'll have the most benefit."

Film packaging that is collected will be converted into plastic pellets, which are used to create new products from fully recycled materials.

"Film packaging is currently recycled and re-used into many applications — both durable ones such as plastic lumber, fences, agriculture applications, as well as non-durable applications such as packaging," said Tony Moucachen, president of Merlin Plastics. "Through Merlin's innovative recycling process, this pilot will increase the recycling of plastic bags and wraps which, in turn, will keep this material out of our natural environment and displace non-renewable resources."

Here are the ten grocery stores participating in the pilot program:

Bellevue

• Town & Country Market Lakemont, 4989 Lakemont Blvd SE Bellevue, WA 98006

Bothell

• PCC Community Markets, 22621 Bothell Everett Hwy, Bothell, WA 98021

Edmonds

• PCC Community Market, 9803 Edmonds Way, Edmonds, WA 98020

Mill Creek

• Town & Country Market Mill Creek, 15605 Main St. Mill Creek, WA 98012

Kitsap County

• Town & Country Market Bainbridge Island, 343 Winslow Way E. Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
• Town & Country Market Poulsbo, 20148 10th Ave NE Poulsbo, WA 98370

Seattle

• Ballard Market, 1400 NW 56th St. Seattle, WA 98107
• Madrona Grocery Outlet, 1126 Martin Luther King Jr Way Seattle, WA 98122
• Marketime Foods, 4416 Fremont Ave N Seattle, WA 98103

Shoreline

• Central Market Shoreline,15505 Westminster Way N. Shoreline, WA 98133

Residents can also find a list of other drop-off locations around the region online.