Sonoma County Tightens Up Recycling

I've wrote before here how I've been appalled at the non- recyclable things that I find in people's recycling bins. Sonoma County seems to have had enough and is going to start getting tough with people throwing garbage in with recycling. If I'm reading it right, measures can include not picking up bins with unacceptable items, with fines possible for repeat violations.

Keep in mind that different areas consider different things recyclable. Humboldt recyclables go to Willits Solid Waste so I would think we go by their rules. I'm not sure how closely WSW's rules match Sonoma County's. They have a slideshow on that Press- Democrat page that shows some of the basics for Sonoma County.

I was surprised to see hard plastic containers, like water buckets, listed as recyclable. Not too surprised to see milk cartons as ok. I'm confused about clean, shredded office paper. Is office paper acceptable? It is up here. I'm guessing it's just too hard to contain shredded paper so they prefer not to deal with it.

I'm wondering if they'll ever put out the word here on what is or isn't acceptable, and start hassling people that don't comply? I suspect they might not as it gives the garbage companies another reason to raise rates. They've gone up steadily, at least in Eureka, since garbage collection and recycling were made mandatory.