Recycling 101: Back to Basics

As kids head back into the classroom, we thought it’d be a good time to take our customers back to recycling school! Here’s a refresher on the basics of recycling:

Step 1: Only recycle the items we accept at our recycling facility. This includes:

• Plastics with numbers 1,2 and 5 on the bottom
• Cardboard
• Newspaper
• Aluminum and metal food and beverage cans
• Food & beverage cartons (such as an orange juice carton)
• Glass food and beverage containers

Want to print this list? Here’s a downloadable version of our recycling guidelines – https://www.pennwaste.com/wp-content/uploads/2018-Penn-Waste-Recycling-Guidelines.pdf

If you live in Lancaster County, please follow their recycling guidelines which can be found here – https://www.lcswma.org/services/recycling-drop-off/

Step 2: Make sure your recyclables are empty, clean and dry. Dirty recyclables can contaminate other recyclables in the truck load.

Step 3: Place ONLY the above recyclable items in your recycling bin. Want to save space in your recycling container? Flatten your cardboard and condense your large plastics if possible.

Finally, one of the most frequently asked questions we get is whether lids should be taken off of containers. The answer is yes, but the reason why might surprise you. Lids are typically too small for our machinery to capture and end up getting mixed in with other contaminates that cannot be recycled.

Recycling really is that easy! Class dismissed.