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Whether your recyclables are picked up from your home, or you drive them to a drop-off site, the Central Virginia Waste Management Authority needs your help.
It's now more important than ever that recycling containers are used for recyclable items only, according to CVWMA officials. Placing items that are not accepted, such as plastic bags or food-contaminated containers, in curbside recycling bins or drop-off recycling containers causes contamination issues and add additional processing and disposal costs.
In the past, nearly all paper and cardboard collected in central Virginia for recycling was marketed to paper mills in China – until recently, when the country stopped allowing certain commodities, such as mixed paper, into the country because of poor quality.
Quality issues are caused when non-recyclable items, like plastic bags, get mixed in bales of paper or cardboard and contaminates the paper. Shutting off the world’s largest importer of recyclable materials has disrupted the market and forced recycling companies and municipalities to question the economic viability of recycling – especially products such as mixed paper and glass.
As a result, CVWMA’s recycling vendors will no longer pick up unwanted items like plastic bags and other non-recyclables, including food-contaminated containers.
Recyclers should place loose acceptable items only in the recycling container and not bag recycling in plastic bags.
If you find an “OOPS” tag (pictured) on your bin or cart and your recycling was not collected, then you may have included items that are not acceptable.
To avoid this, visit http://cvwma.com/programs/curbside-recycling/what-to-recycle/.
CVWMA collaborates with 13 local governments in central Virginia and provides residential recycling to 275,000 households in nine jurisdictions, including Henrico. It also provides recycling opportunities at 35 drop-off locations for cardboard, paper, cans, bottles, cartons and other plastic containers.
The Authority has made significant strides in encouraging recycling by making it more convenient. But more work is needed to keep recycling sustainable in the future, and to avoid losing the recycling momentum that has been fostered over the last 30 years.
For details, call CVWMA at 340-0900 or visit http://cvwma.com.
