In the Bin!

1. In the Bin! Everything You Always Wanted to Know About Recycling, But Were Afraid to Ask

2. Chelmsford’s Recycling History • Chelmsford has had a strong recycling program for many years! • The vast majority of residents participate (between 80 and 90% on most routes!) • Since implementing our “mandatory recycling” bylaw in 2006, more residents recycle now than ever before.

3. Recycling is NOT immune to a down economy • Recycling facilities (MRFs) and haulers are businesses – if they don’t make money, they will not stay in business! • When the economy slows down, manufacturers do not need the materials in our bins as much as they do in a booming economy and the price for these materials drops • Now, recycling facilities (“MRFs”) must keep their costs to a minimum to survive

4. Recycling facilities, haulers and residents must adjust to this down economy • MRFs are seeking to reduce costs by reducing contamination. • Contamination is expensive to deal with • MRFs must pay to remove and dispose of contaminants.

5. What is contamination? • Contamination means the presence of any material not recyclable at that facility, or different kinds of recyclables mixed together. Because Chelmsford does “dual stream” recycling, if you put newspapers loose in a bin with water bottles, those recyclables are contaminated even though everything in the bin is recyclable!

6. What does “dual stream” mean? Fiber Commingled containers With dual stream recycling, the two streams must not be mixed!

7. Dual stream means sorting at the source (i.e., at your home ) because: • The hauler puts your paper and cardboard (fiber) into one section of the recycling truck. • The hauler then dumps your bottles, cans and other containers into a different section of the recycling truck

8. Each part of the truck is emptied at a different section of the MRF. If fiber and containers are mixed together, that load is contaminated. Recyclable fiber at a Massachusetts MRF.

9. How do loads get contaminated? • Contamination happens when residents don’t know what to recycle • Contamination happens when residents don’t set recycling out properly • Some residents put items in the bin and “hope for the best”

10. Common Contaminants • Plastic bags – even plastic bags with the recycling symbol! • NO PLASTIC BAGS IN RECYCLING – NO RECYCLING IN PLATIC BAGS! • Plastic bags ARE recyclable – but not in your curbside bin. All Chelmsford grocery stores accept clean grocery bags for recycling.

11. What’s the problem with plastic bags? MRFs in the area are largely automated and plastic bags get tangled in the machinery. Imagine trying to pull plastic bags out of this pile of recyclable paper!

12. Another common contaminant • Styrofoam® and other “foamed” or expanded plastics EVEN if they have a recycling symbol

13. Some #6 plastic is recyclable While Styrofoam and other “foamed” or expanded polystyrene (EPS) are not collected for recycling, other #6 plastic which is firm and usually clear or black in color can go in your bin. Some plastic cups and take out containers are made out of recyclable #6 plastic.

14. Why don’t we recycle Styrofoam® ? • In order for something to be “recyclable,” someone must want to buy it (and for more than it costs to collect, transport and bale it!) • In order to want to buy it, someone needs to come up with a good way to make it into something else. • Styrofoam® is NOT recycled because there is no market for it – i.e., no one wants to buy it. • AVOID Styrofoam® - but if you end up with some, find reuse options or put it in the trash. • Packaging peanuts – clean packaging peanuts can be taken to the UPS store at the Drum Hill Rotary for reuse.

15. The recession’s impact on your bin! • The MRFs need to keep their costs down • They can do that by reducing contamination • MRFs have told haulers that if they deliver loads with more than an acceptable level of contamination, the MRFs will charge the haulers a higher tipping fee • To avoid higher tipping fees, the haulers will not pick up bins that contain contaminants

16. When times were good . . . • MRFs could afford to absorb the costs associated with removing contaminants because they were getting a good price for the recyclables! • MRFs even encouraged residents to err on the side of recycling in the hopes of recovering more actual recyclables • Haulers would empty bins EVEN IF they contained contaminants or mixed materials!

17. We NEED MRFs and Haulers to survive this downturn • Chelmsford’s recycling program cannot exist without haulers and MRFs! • If they go out of business, that is very bad news for municipal recycling programs and for the planet!

18. What does this mean for Chelmsford residents trying to do the right thing? First, since January, 2009 the MRFs no longer want ANY part of pizza boxes in the recycling bins!

19. WHY pizza boxes? • In the past, only the CLEAN, non-greasy, non-contaminated portion of the pizza box should have gone in the recycling bin. • Some people put whole pizza boxes including contaminated portions into the recycling bins. • It only takes a small amount of grease, oil or food to contaminate an entire batch of paper in the process of being recycled and ruin the whole batch!

20. MRFs can’t afford to inspect every pizza box • Paper manufacturers can’t afford to get any contaminated pizza boxes • Until further notice, NO PIZZA BOXES IN THE RECYCLING BINS! • If you put pizza boxes in your bin, the hauler is not required to pick it up.

21. What to do with pizza boxes now? • Pizza boxes may go into the trash. Because they are considered “contaminated” they are not included in the cardboard waste ban. • Pizza boxes can be composted in your backyard composter. Tear into pieces and don’t worry about small amounts of grease or food contamination in your compost. • If you don’t compost but would like to start, contact the Recycling Office!

22. Reducing contamination will mean change for some residents • Residents who put their recyclables out in plastic bags and became accustomed to the bins being emptied are finding their bins rejected. • Residents who put Styrofoam in their bins are having their bins rejected. • Residents who mixed paper/fiber and containers are having their bins rejected.

23. Change is frustrating but . . . PLEASE KEEP RECYCLING! It really is more important now than ever before!

24. Recycling saves the Town Money! We pay the incinerator by the ton to burn everything in the trash truck. When recyclable material ends up in the trash truck, our tax dollars literally go up in smoke!

25. Waste bans! • Most of the materials we recycle (paper and cardboard, most plastic bottles, metal cans, etc.) are banned from incinerators by state-wide waste bans. • To comply with state law, to save money and the planet, we MUST keep recycling. • We just need to recycle smartly!

26. Back to dual stream! What belongs in the two streams of “dual stream” recycling?

27. Fiber • Recyclable Fiber – includes just about any kind of paper and cardboard you can think of – newspaper and glossy inserts, magazines, school paper, junk mail, boxes, cardboard tubes, etc. Exceptions: do NOT recycle photo paper, carbon or tissue paper, paper towel, paper cups or plates, or any paper that is contaminated with food or grease). Also, pizza boxes and hardcover books are not currently accepted with curbside recycling.

28. Staples, paper clips, metal spirals can stay! • You do not need to remove staples. • You do not need to remove paper clips • You do not need to remove metal spirals in notebooks. • Window envelopes and self stick labels are okay!

29. Examples of “fiber” Paper: Recycle all of your clean newspaper and glossy inserts; magazines and catalogs; junk mail, greeting cards and envelopes (window envelopes are okay); office, school paper and computer paper; construction and craft paper; manila envelopes and file folders; telephone books, etc

30. More examples of fiber • Recycle your “chipboard” meaning the kind of cardboard used to make cereal boxes. Recycle all of your cereal boxes, tissue boxes, and other similar boxes, as well as the tubes inside toilet paper and paper towel rolls. Flatten all of your chipboard and recycle it with your other paper.

31. Corrugated cardboard • Corrugated cardboard: this refers to the heavy duty ridged cardboard used to make packing cartons. Corrugated boxes must be flattened, cut down to no larger than 3 ft. x 3 ft. and tied or taped in bundles no larger than 3 ft. by 3 ft. by 1 ft.

32. Recycle . . . File folders Flyers Glossy paper Greeting cards Hanging file folders Lottery tickets Mail Magazines Mat board – used in picture framing Math paper – graph and ledger, etc. Newspapers – with or without inserts Newsprint Office and copy paper Packing paper Paper – lined and white Paper – fax Paper bags – brown and white Paper bags – with handles Paper towel and toilet paper tubes Pendaflex hanging file folders Phone Books Photocopies Post-it notes Receipts Shredded paper in paper bags Spiral notebooks Writing tablets • Booklets • Books – soft cover • Boxes – for office supplies, like paper clips • Boxes – cereal, shoe, cracker, pasta, etc. • Boxes – with plastic windows • Brochures – including glossy • Calendars – wall type • Cardboard – corrugated and paperboard • Catalogs • Charlie cards – paper MBTA tickets • Clasp envelopes • Colored paper • Construction and kraft paper • Cover and card stock, index cards • Envelopes – with plastic windows and/or labels www.massrecyclespaper.org/paperlist.html

33. More on cardboard . . . • Why so picky on the size of cardboard recycled at the curb? On your next recycling day, take a good look at the rectangular troughs on the side of the recycling truck. Cardboard over 3x3x1 will not fit and will get stuck when they try to tip it into the truck’s center compartment.

34. Corrugated Cardboard dumpster • There is a cardboard dumpster behind the Town Offices. • It is for resident’s (no businesses!) flattened corrugated cardboard only, and ONLY on those occasions when a resident has so much cardboard that curbside recycling would present a hardship. • No chip board or other paper -while mixing these materials in your paper grocery bags or tied bundles for curbside recycling is fine, the cardboard dumpster is for corrugated cardboard ONLY! • NO Styrofoam or other packaging material!

35. How to recycle your paper, cardboard and other fiber: Put paper, chipboard and cardboard in paper grocery bags or tie in bundles.

36. Put your bagged or bundled paper At the curb in a manner that allows the hauler to pick it up easily, neatly, quickly and separately from your recyclable containers. Put bags/bundles: • In a recycling bin; • On top of your recycling bins filled with bottles and cans; • On top of your well marked recycling barrels holding your loose bottles/cans, or • On the ground next to the bins or barrels.

37. Paper bags for paper recycling: paper loose in the bin causes litter when the paper blows out or if it spills when bins are emptied on windy days. If you have no paper bags, tie paper in bundles. • We’d love to see EVERYONE using reusable shopping bags. But be sure to request that some of your groceries be bagged in paper every few shopping trips. That way you’ll have a supply of paper bags so you are always ready to recycle your paper!

38. The “other” stream The non-fiber stream has gone by various names: “bottles and cans,” “commingled containers” and simply “containers” are some of the ways we’ve referred to this stream.

39. What’s in a name? It might not change the smell of a rose – but it helps determine what’s in your bin! • Recent attempts at naming the stream have been under- or over-inclusive. • When we called this stream “commingled containers,” many folks were confused and some included their chipboard boxes (which should be recycled with paper) and plastic bags (which shouldn’t be in the bin at all) loose in the bin with bottles and cans.

40. When we just called this stream “bottles and cans,” some residents thought they could no longer recycle their yogurt and deli containers, aluminum foil, their milk and juice cartons, or their plastic egg cartons, etc.

41. If we call this stream “glass, metal and plastic,” we get material in the bins such as old pots and pans and plumbing parts, drinking glasses, plastic toys and vinyl siding. All of those items may be recyclable, but not by the MRFs that take our curbside recyclables.

42. Is “Commingled containers, bottles and cans, marked plastic containers, aluminum foil, milk and juice cartons, etc.” too long for a name? Since it’s not easy to come up with a good name for the stream, we’ll tell you what it includes and how to prepare and recycle these materials.

43. Glass • Recycle any unbroken glass bottle or jar. • Any color glass is acceptable. • Rinse well • Recycle lids only if they have a recycling symbol • Labels and neck rings may stay on (labels may be removed and recycled with paper if you like) • No broken glass with recycling. • No drinking glasses, vases or window glass (they are a different kind of glass and cannot be recycled with bottles and jars).

44. Metal cans and foil • Cans should be well rinsed. • Cans may be crushed (to make more room in your bins and more room in the truck!) • Labels may stay on (but if you remove labels, recycle labels with paper). • Recycle clean aluminum pie type pans and clean foil with containers.

45. PLASTIC In Chelmsford, you can recycle plastic containers marked 1 through 7 EXCEPT for STYROFOAM® in your curbside bins. (And just to be clear, a plastic bag is not considered a container.)

46. What are these symbols? • These are “resin identification codes” • The symbols tell manufacturers what kind of plastic was used to make a particular item. • Because there are many different kinds of plastic, each with different functions and characteristics, manufacturers must know the resin content of plastic in order to know whether they can use it. • Just because you see this symbol does NOT automatically mean you can recycle that item in your bin

47. How to recycle plastic: • REMOVE CAPS: leaving lids on water and other bottles can cause safety hazards when the bottles are processed and baled. • Recycle caps only if they have one of the resin identification symbols. • Even if caps do have symbols, they are usually made of a different plastic than the bottle.

48. How to recycle plastic containers: • Check for one of the symbols through . • These symbols are usually found on the bottom of the container. • If the container has such a symbol AND it is not Styrofoam® (and it is not a plastic bag) recycle it in your bin or well marked recycling barrel.

49. How to recycle plastic containers: • Rinse • Remove lids • Neck rings and labels are okay • Crush if possible • Put the containers in your recycling bin or well marked recycling barrel along with your glass and metal containers and milk and juice cartons

50. Plastics you should NOT recycleat the curb: • unmarked plastic (i.e., anything that does not have one of the resin identification symbols); • foamed plastic such as Styrofoam® (meat trays, coffee cups, packing material, etc.) even if it HAS the symbol; and • plastic bags even if they have a recycling symbol. (Most grocery stores have receptacles for recycling marked plastic bags) • Containers that held any hazardous products