The Dangers of Wishcycling

End recycling contamination in Skagit County!

The Skagit Plastic Reduction & Recycling Coalition is determined to help Skagitonians reduce reliance on single-use plastics AND recycle plastic correctly. That last bit is important for a lot of reasons.

“I’m an environmentalist. I recycle!” Ever since the first Earth Day in 1970, recycling in America has grown to represent the starting point for environmental stewardship. If you care about our planet, you recycle. But sometimes we want so badly to ensure all the plastics we use gets recycled that we put things into our recycling bins that end up making the whole lot unrecyclable.

Wishcycling. Have you ever wondered if a particular kind of plastic packaging is recyclable and just put it in the bin, assuming either it would be recycled or it would get ‘sorted’ out? That’s wishcycling and it causes contamination of the recycling waste stream. And no one wants contamination of the recycling waste stream! Recycling contamination is a significant problem, resulting in loads of recyclable plastics ending up in landfills. Unfortunately, this happens a lot because many of us put items that are not recyclable in the bins, or we fail to rinse recyclable plastics. In other words, we have become wishful, but kind of lazy, at the same time. Ouch.

Plastics recycling contamination. The plastics recycling process generally includes recyclables being sorted, bundled, and transferred to a recycler to undergo the process of breaking the material down so it can be made into new products. But if those shipments of recyclables contain a lot of material that is not recyclable, then the process of recycling is made much harder or even not feasible, resulting in the whole lot being disposed of rather than recycled. Recycling contamination has become such a big problem that China will no long accept plastics and other materials for recycling from the US and other countries around the world. China placed stringent requirements for levels of contamination that are significantly lower than what we currently see in the US plastic recycling stream.

It’s time for a recycling reboot.

What’s recyclable? Good question with a more complex answer than you would think. Plastic recycling is dependent on two things: the recyclability of the plastic item and the market for recyclable plastics. Recently, the market for recyclable plastics has changed dramatically because of China’s decision to stop taking recyclable plastics from the United States due to excessive contamination of the recycling waste stream.

So, what’s recyclable? In Skagit County, you have two options for recycling plastics: you have curbside recycling (generally provided by Waste Management) with a single recycling bin where you put all recyclables (plastics, glass, metal, and paper – aka comingled recycling) or you take your recyclables to the Skagit County transfer station, managed by Skagit County Solid Waste Division, where there are separate bins for different types of recyclables, including plastics.

Currently, in Skagit County:
• Curbside recycling of plastics accepts clean bottles, jars, jugs, and tubs.
• Transfer station plastic recycling accepts clean bottles and jugs, but not jars or tubs.

Just remember the SHAPE of the container is what’s important, not the number in the triangle. And rinse containers to remove food residue (they don’t have to be sparkling…just rinsed). Also, remove lids and never put your recyclables in plastic bags as both items can become stuck in the machinery at the recycling plant causing costly downtime.

Don’t even THINK about putting any other plastics in your recycling bins. If in doubt, throw it out. We know it’s painful, but if you aren’t sure a plastic item is recyclable, then do not put it in your recycling bin. Doing so could contaminate the recycling waste stream. It’s time for all of us to reboot our recycling habits and recycle only accepted materials, so we don’t contaminate the recycling stream and send valuable recyclables to the landfill.
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Download a flyer about the most common recycling contaminants to keep out of your bins at https://recycleoftenrecycleright.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Most-Common-Contaminants-Poster.pdf.

More details and current information can be found at the Waste Management website at http://wmnorthwest.com/skagitcounty/recycling.html.

If you take your plastic recycling to the transfer station, you can download a copy of their guidelines at https://www.skagitcounty.net/Departments/PublicWorksSolidWaste/main.htm.