Cache County recycling no longer accepting certain kinds of plastic
Starting immediately Cache County will no longer be accepting plastics “three through seven” as part of their curbside recycling program.
“It is a global issue with recycling plastics right now,” said Logan city conservation coordinator Emily Malik. “We have to ship them overseas to China and they no longer want the plastics that they were receiving, so it is taking some adjustments on our end.”
Malik said the most effective change, which went into place in May, is most likely the elimination of number 5 plastics, which include items such as disposable plastic cups, sour cream, yogurt, cottage cheese, and butter containers.
“I would say the majority of plastics you have in your homes are ones and twos,” Malik said. “I don’t think this change means that our recycling program is worthless. You can still put paper, cardboard, and metals in there and then the plastics one and two, so you can still recycle a significant amount of material in your recycling container. I don’t expect people to have a half full container now because of the change.”
Other common examples of #3-7 plastics that may no longer be recycled are:
- Window cleaner, detergent, shampoo bottles
- Squeezable bottles, (syrup, ketchup, mustard)
- Disposable plates and cups
- egg cartons
- carry-out containers
- aspirin bottles, medicine bottles
Kim Allsop, a manager at Mountain Fiber Insulation, Inc., the company that does the recycling for Logan City said word is still getting out about the change in what plastics are being accepted at MF, so it will take some time to make this change.
What can’t I recycle in a blue container?
These items are NOT ACCEPTED for recycling in your blue container:
- Plastics #3-7, unmarked plastics, plastic bags, plastic lids, or styrofoam
- Glass (we have drop site locations for recycling)
- Pizza boxes (if they are greasy – pizza boxes without grease can be torn in half and recycled)
- Frozen food containers that have the food embedded in the container
- Yard Waste
- Foil wrapping paper or ribbons
- Diapers
- Paper Plate, napkins, tissues
- Potato chip bags
- Pet food bags
- Shredded paper
- Waxy milk containers
- Juice boxes or other aseptic packaging
- Photographs
- Any container that once held motor oil
- Hardcover books or spiral bound books
- Aluminum foil or foil pans
- Wrapping Paper or tissue
“It cost more to sort the stuff we throw away than it does to sort the stuff that we can utilize,” Kim said. “Right now, we are only taking ones and twos which there is a market for.”
Where else is the recycling change happening?
Malik said this change is not singular to Cache County. It is happening nationwide.
“The reason we are not doing the threes through sevens is because there is no market for them. There hasn’t been a very good market for quite some time, but we’ve been able to find a place for it to go and that’s why we had continued doing it, but it just came down to the point where we no longer have anywhere to go with these plastics,” said Kristin Allsop, the secretary at Mountain Fiber.
Although plastics three through seven are not accepted anymore, plastics ones and twos are.
What happens if I accidentally put #3-7 plastic in the recycling?
“If people continue to put the threes through sevens in the recycling basically all it is doing to us is we’re having to sort those out still, so it is kind of slowing down our process from being able to just get the plastics that are recyclable currently,” Kristin said. “We’re trying to do whatever we can to keep our program strong and not make it go under completely.
@AutumnMarilyn