To reduce the amount of garbage in the recycling stream, the Orange County Utilities Solid Waste Division announces the launch of a recycling education initiative, “Think 5.”
By focusing on the top five recyclable items – plastic, metal and glass containers as well as cardboard and paper – the overall goal is to help raise awareness about good recycling habits.
“Recycling has been a staple in our community for more than 25 years, and we’ve always had a great deal of support,” said Jim Becker, manager of Orange County Utilities’ Solid Waste Division. “To make recycling more efficient, we’re asking residents to only think about five items, and to place those in the blue lid roll cart.”
As part of the new Automated Curbside Collection Program that started January 1, residents of unincorporated Orange County were issued 95-gallon blue lid roll carts for single-stream recycling that are collected once a week. The roll carts replaced much smaller 18-gallon bins that previously required sorting of materials. While these new carts have the potential to boost recycling to higher levels, the success of the program hinges on the new education effort so customers can learn how to maximize the potential and minimize the amount of wrong materials that might go in the roll cart.
Like many Florida counties, Orange County, which ranked in the Top 20 last year with a 52 percent recycling rate, is working toward the state target of 75 percent by 2020.
Asking more than 200,000 households in Orange County to concentrate on five items increases the likelihood that more of the right materials get recycled in the blue lid roll carts.
The community can learn more about the campaign at Orange County Recycles Day from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.Saturday, November 12 at the Orange County Landfill, 12100 Young Pine Road in east Orange County.