AP: Plastic bags don't go in the recycling bin. What should you do instead?

[AStern]

Don’t put plastic bags in household recycling bins
Instead of stashing plastic films with household recycling like cardboard or cans, leave them in the specific drop-off bin at a grocery or convenience store. Once dropped off, the bags are given to recyclers who reprocess them into materials for new things like furniture.

The company Trex makes outdoor decking out of recycled plastic films and has a locator on its website to find drop off points by zip code, said Stephanie Hicks, the organization’s materials and recycling manager.

Grocery bags and soft plastics labeled with the numbers two and four are generally accepted at these bins. To figure out what other kinds of plastic you can bring, look up recycling regulations for the specific store and your area.

Before dropping something off, make sure it’s not covered in food residue or too degraded. Such plastics aren’t good candidates for recycling and should go in the trash. Don’t forget to remove stray items like receipts from plastic bags.

https://apnews.com/article/recycling-plastic-bags-wishcycling-plastic-films-f2355d5048defdeb9ace92da5dd59a2a

[oasis]

1. Kick &

Thank you

[JBTaurus83]

2. People seem to think

They can just throw whatever they want in their recycle bins. I guess it feels better than acknowledging the amount of waste we all create.

[MLAA]

3. Today I had a car full of recyclables including plastic bags.

Cardboard that wouldn’t fit in my full recycle pick up bin since I was out of town two weeks ago when they last came. Trash is weekly but blue bin recyclables is every other week. Then I had a bag of drop off plastics that pick up doesn’t take and glass bottles. I dropped off all three categories at a location not too far away that had huge dumpsters for each. Felt good to get that overdue task done.

[OKIsItJustMe]

5. My experience

I pack all of my cardboard up in cardboard boxes. When one is full, I “box fold” the top, and set it beside the recycling bin. The collectors seem to pick it up with no objections. (If I put something in the bin that doesn’t belong there, they don’t collect it. — They just leave it in the bin.)

[MLAA]

6. Cool, I'll give it a try! Thanks for the tip.

[OKIsItJustMe]

8. You're welcome!

I hope your experience is similar to mine.

[MLAA]

9. It worked! I put a very large box by the blue bin and they took it!

[OKIsItJustMe]

10. Yay! - Thanks for letting me know!

[dooner]

4. Thanks for sharing this info

Super useful info. I'll be checking out Nob Hill's drop off location... and I wish Costco was participating as well.

[hunter]

7. California has banned the shopping bag sort.

It's all paper now.

I was using them to line bathroom trash cans and to pick up dog poop.

Most plastic isn't recycled. It goes straight to the dump where it is buried or in some places incinerated.