Thursday, October 15, 2015

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.

2 Comments:

At 10:55 AM, Blogger Julie Timmons said...

Check the Recology website for a full list of what they can take and what they can't. I couldn't get a link to work. It annoys me no end that they still can't recycle styrofoam up here but it's going to be illegal soon anyway. Thanks for recycling!

 
At 11:46 AM, Blogger Fred Mangels said...

You might have noticed styrofoam is on the Sonoma County list of non- recyclables, too. I can understand why. It's just too expensive to transport such light stuff. Same with the plastic shopping bags.

Years ago when I was working on my now defunct Humboldt Recycler's Page, I found a place in Napa that takes styrofoam. As I recall it was some place that made styrofoam products. They'd take old styrofoam, grind it up and make new stuff from it. I'm surprised Sonoma doesn't just truck it there, but maybe it's still too expensive? Cheaper to buy new product than pay for trucking old stuff?

 

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