Blog by Angelina Brandt, Director of Sustainability
November 6th 2024
America Recycles Day (ARD) is nationally celebrated on November 15th to spread the word about how recycling helps reduce waste, save energy, and conserve precious resources. But America Recycles Day isn’t just a one-day celebration – it’s an opportunity to look at your recycling habits and find ways to grow your impact.
Local recycling is widely successful in so many ways; Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency recycled over 8.4 million pounds of regulated recycling last year, the equivalent weight of two Giant Sequoia trees in just paper and cardboard alone, and enough plastic equivalent to the weight of two and a half blue whales! All across Ulster County, commercial and residential programs recovered over 55 million pounds of plastic, glass, metal, and paper products!
Despite this, all across America, it’s clear we’re not recovering as much recycling as we could be, due to lack of access to recycling services, or an “engagement gap” where people are just not sure what can go in the bin or choose not to recycle as often as they could. This year, our Recycling Outreach Team is celebrating ARD by sharing recycling leadership tips to increase recycling capture wherever you are – at home, at work – or at events out in the community, so that we can achieve even greater success and recycling milestones.
Workplaces may feel slightly more challenging to get coworkers on board with where and how to recycling correctly, but there are plenty of direct and fun ways to get your message across and improve the results of your recycling efforts at work. Here are some ideas to enhance recycling habits in an office-setting or other workspaces;
1. Centralize Your Sorting Stations
When people know where to find the bins, they’re more likely to use them. A centralized station that is highly visible, accessible, and clearly labeled will help employees get into the habit of recycling more often and sorting items correctly. Place bins in high-traffic areas like near the kitchen, printer, and by the elevators. Make sure a recycling bin is always located directly next to every trash bin. Use color-coded bins to make it super easy to identify where each item should go. Set up signage with simple, easy-to-understand instructions or images to show employees what goes in each bin. Include examples (like plastic bottles, jugs, and jars) and list out what NOT to recycle, like coffee cups or paper plates. Things can easily be sorted incorrectly if people are not sure about the rules – the key is to keep it visually simple and straightforward. Contact UCRRA to request free recycling bin stickers!
2. Make a Recycling Challenge
A little healthy competition can go a long way! Challenge your colleagues to see who can recycle most correctly by the end of the day or the week. Or if you want to go even further, see who can create the least amount of landfill trash overall by the end of the day or week. People may feel more invested in the challenge if there is a small reward, like choosing the playlist for the upcoming company party, choosing a favorite restaurant for Friday’s lunch, tickets to a movie night, etc.
People also love creative projects! A fun DIY upcycling contest might just be the inspiration needed to recycle with more enthusiasm. Did you know you can turn old wine corks into a cute bulletin board? Or cereal boxes can become funky storage bins? Find your colleagues with secret crafting superpowers, make something fun and office-themed, and choose the most creative or most functional “winners.” Upcycling is a really fun and approachable way to open up a conversation about recycling.
3. Share the Impact of Recycling (Without Sounding Like a Lecture)
People often don’t realize how much of an impact recycling can have. Positive reinforcement works wonders! America Recycles Day (ARD) is a great time to remind people about recycling by circulating an office memo that not only shares bite-sized exciting facts that can spark their interest, but also mentions where to find the recycling sorting stations at work and what specific items can go into them. Periodically sharing your recycling stats also helps people feel like they’re part of something bigger. To find out how much you recycle, contact your service provider for an estimate of how many lbs. of recycling gets collected each year (based off the size of your collection bins or dumpsters). Check out our Business Waste Reduction & Recycling Guide for more talking points about the benefits of recycling. Our Recycling Outreach Team can help you craft the perfect message to help motivate and inspire better recycling habits!
If you want to become a champion of recycling leadership and advocacy, please consider joining the call to action in support of Statewide EPR Policy for paper and packaging. EPR, or Extended Producer Responsibility, is an environmental policy approach in which a producer’s responsibility for a product is extended to the post-consumer stage of a product’s lifecycle. EPR policy is characterized by shifting responsibility upstream toward the producer and away from municipalities and incentives for producers to take into account environmental considerations when designing their products. Five U.S. states have successfully enacted packaging EPR bills with demonstrated results increasing those state’s recycling rates. New York is among six other states that are still actively working towards passing EPR policy for packaging. Urge the Senate, Assembly, and Governor to pass the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (PRRIA), S.4246-B (Harckham)/A.5322-B (Glick). Learn more here.
If you enjoyed this blog, check out our other tips for recycling at home – or out at events in the community.
Have questions about recycling? Check out some Frequently Asked Questions below!
If you’d like to bring recycling education to your office, school, or group, our Recycling Outreach Team can help! Contact us to set up a tour, a site visit, or a guest speaker to share about the benefits of recycling.
Although sometimes labeled with a recycling symbol, or even the numbers “1” and “2”, black plastic is generally not recycled in New York State. Despite this, 63% of Americans believe that black plastic is recyclable.
Here’s why it’s not recyclable:
1. Black plastics blend in with conveyor belts in single stream recycling centers, and therefore they do not reflect light which means they cannot be identified and sorted by the optical scanners used at recycling facilities.
2. There is currently no market for recycled black plastic. It’s an undesirable feedstock for manufacturers because black plastic, once chipped or flaked into pellets, cannot be used to make packaging of any other color, which decreases its value in the recycling marketplace.
Not only is black plastic tricky to recycle but it can also be a threat to our health. A great deal of black plastic is manufactured using electronic waste or e-waste. E-waste often contains toxic elements such as bromine, chromium, and lead. This can be troubling for humans especially if e-waste is being recycled into items that we come into close contact with, such as single-use food packaging, like to-go containers and coffee cup lids.
The next time you come across black plastic, consider how you can avoid it.
No. The number printed on plastic items is called a resin identification code, and it is used to identify the type of plastic container it is made from, not recyclability. The number alone is not a good indicator that the item is accepted in the recycling program you participate in. If you have curbside collection, it is always best to check with your hauler for recycling instructions.
Number 1 – PETE (Polyethylene terephthalate):
Soda bottles, water bottles, cooking oil bottles, and medicine containers.
Number 2 – HDPE (High-density Polyethylene):
Containers for: laundry/dish detergent, milk, shampoo, conditioner, also various toys, and grocery bags.
Number 3 – V (Polyvinyl chloride):
Pipes, shower curtains, clear medical tubing, vinyl dashboards and seat covers.
Number 4 – LDPE (Low-density Polyethylene):
Wrapping films, grocery bags, and sandwich bags.
Number 5 – PP (Polypropylene):
Tupperware, yogurt tubs, (orange) medicine containers, and plastic caps of soda bottles.
Number 6 – PS (Polystyrene):
Plastic cups, disposable cutlery and cups (clear and colored), coffee cups, packing peanuts, Styrofoam insulation.
Number 7 – OTHER:
They are made of any combination of 1-6 or another, less commonly used plastic.
‘Single Stream Recycling’ refers to when all recyclable items are placed into one bin for collection. Users do not need to further separate items into any subcategories.
‘Dual Stream Recycling’ refers to when users need to separate recyclable items into subcategories – like mixed paper and commingled containers (plastic, glass & metal).
At recycling centers, recyclable materials are sorted both mechanically and by hand. The types of processing equipment at recycling centers can vary. Single stream recycling facilities often have more specialized machines to sort through the complex stream of recyclables mechanically.
UCRRA processes dual stream recycling only. If you utilize a Single Stream curbside recycling service, please contact your hauler for a list of accepted items.
The Ulster County Mandatory Source Separation and Recycling Law, Local Law Number 4 of 2010, establishes regulated recyclables materials and requires all persons in Ulster County to source-separate those materials for recycling.
As defined by the law, “Person” shall mean “any natural person, individual, association, owner or manager of a business, commercial or industrial establishment, joint venture, corporation, trust, estate, institution, not-for-profit organization or any other legal entity including a municipality or any other waste generator.”
It is considered an unlawful act for any person to discard or fail to separate regulated recyclable materials. Please contact us to report any instances of noncompliance.
Do not place plastic bags or film plastics in your recycling bin! Bring all plastic bags to your local grocery store or a large retail outlet; collection location boxes are usually located near bottle/can redemption centers or in front of stores.
Plastic films include items like bread bags, sandwich bags, produce bags, newspaper bags, dry cleaning bags, bubble wrap, packing pillows, shrink wrap from toilet paper/paper towels, etc. All of these film plastics can be recycled in with your plastic bags!
Not sure if a film is acceptable or not? When in doubt try the stretch test. If the plastic baggie stretches when pulled with two hands, it’s the right type of plastic for this recycling program.
New York State’s Plastic Bag Reduction, Reuse and Recycling Act has been in effect since January 1, 2009. Stores with 10,000 square feet or more of retail space and chains which operate five or more stores with greater than 5,000 square feet of retail space, and which provide plastic carry out bags to customers, are required to comply with the law. More information from NYS DEC.
*Even though plastic bags are banned in Ulster County, plastic bags and other films are still accepted for recycling at grocery/retail stores.
In short, PET thermoforms behave differently than bottles as a result of some basic properties of the thermoform material. Currently, in the recycling markets across the US and Canada, there is a 5-10% thermoform threshold in place. This means that for every bale of recyclable plastic, depending on the buyer, only 5-10% of it can be thermoform plastics. If the amount of thermoforms goes beyond this number, the bale is at risk of being discarded in the trash instead of moving along in the process to continue being recycled.
In order for recycling systems to be sustainable, and recyclers to bring high quality sorted material to end markets that will purchase it and manufacture new goods, recycling facilities must meet the high quality standards of the buyers. Clamshell containers are also commonly contaminated by food residues, which makes them a lower quality grade of plastic. These containers are also ‘lightweighted’ which makes them compress flat during processing and in single-stream systems, they can be mistakenly sorted as 2-D rather than 3-D objects and contaminate the mixed paper streams.
UCRRA operates a dual stream recycling center and does not process ‘single stream recycling’. If you utilize a curbside hauling service, please contact the company directly.
Yes, caps and lids are recyclable.
Keep the lids and caps on if the container, lid, or cap are the same material (for example, a plastic lid on a plastic bottle). Please remove the lid if the materials differ (for example, a glass bottle with a metal lid). These guidelines pertain to Ulster County residents that utilize their Town Transfer Station. If you have curbside recycling collection, please contact your hauler for their recycling guidelines.
Pizza boxes are widely considered to be not recyclable because they are typically very soiled by food and grease. Pizza boxes are not accepted in the recycling program at UCRRA or at the town transfer stations in Ulster County. If you have a hauler please contact them for instructions.
Call UCRRA (845) 336-3336 or fill out our online form to Report Non-Recycling.
