What happens when you put plastic bags in your recycling cart
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) News Hour has produced a brief, 2.5 minute video on not placing plastic bags in your recycling cart. It explains why this can be a big problem for recycling facilities and why plastic bags should be recycled at drop-off locations only. Check it out!
In an effort to recycle as much as possible, many people mistakenly put their plastic bags in their recycling carts. Unfortunately, plastic bags and other types of film/wrap plastics do more harm than good when disposed of through curbside recycling.
Plastic bags, shrink wrap, bubble wrap and other types of ‘stretchy’ film plastics easily tangle in the machinery that is meant to sort recyclables into separate categories. This slows efficiency of the facility, as the machines have to be shut down to allow workmen to climb in and cut out the bags with box cutters. This material accounts for at least a 25% reduction in efficiency.
(example of bags tangled in machinery)
Reuse and Recycling: Plastic bags can be reused in your home, for example as waste basket liners or doggy poo scooper bags. Any bags you don’t reuse can be properly recycled placing them in receptacles found near the front of most grocery stores. This ensures they will be recycled with other materials of the same kind and not have a chance to choke recycling sorting machines.
Here in Weston, there are several locations that provide plastic bag/wrap collection bins: