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Well, now one city in Maryland is working to clear up that confusion!
Baltimore recently announced they are launching a new program aimed at reducing the City’s recycling contaminants, or items that are not meant to be recycled.
The program, called the “Fleet on the Street” campaign, is designed to remind residents what they can and can’t recycle.
As part of the campaign, workers with the Department of Public Works (DPW) will check and tag containers with items that are not supposed to be recycled over the next two months.
The tags will say “Oops” on them and give feedback about what residents should keep out of their recycling bins. These items include plastic bags, food-covered items, used paper towels/napkins, takeout containers and more.
“Now more than ever, recycling right is essential to the operation of DPW’s recycling collection program,” said DPW Director Jason W. Mitchell. “Residents knowing what does and does not belong in containers will help to reduce the City’s rate of recycling contamination and maximize the effectiveness of the City’s distribution of residential recycling carts and shift to bi-weekly recycling collections.”
DPW said contaminated recycling costs Baltimore more money to process and can also cause equipment jams at processing facilities. This could also be super dangerous for workers. Therefore, the most effective way to address this problem is at its source.
“The best way to reduce the City’s recycling contamination rate is to keep plastic bags out of recycling containers,” Mitchell added. “Don’t use plastic bags as your recycling containers, and please don’t dispose of plastic grocery bags and plastic films in your containers.”
Contamination is also driven up by products like clamshell containers, Styrofoam and bottles and jars that are not empty or clean. More information about how to properly recycle is available on the DPW’s website.
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