New Year, New Habits

Tips for reducing contamination in organics and recycling carts

For many people, the beginning of a new year brings hope and anticipation for the changes they will make. Maybe having a more environmentally friendly lifestyle was on your list of resolutions. However, even if it wasn’t, a few simple changes of habit can improve our environment and our community. ose small changes will help reduce contamination in our organics and recycling carts, making our materials cleaner and more useful.

When organics are free of contamination, local composters can consistently produce clean, nutrient-rich compost that helps improve soil health for area gardeners and California farmers. Plus, it reduces the amount of food waste headed to land lls for disposal and decreases greenhouse gas emissions from methane.

Similarly, when your recycling cart is free of contamination, it makes sorting and processing recyclables more e cient and results in cleaner products that are more useful to manufacturers. It also reduces the amount of residual waste collected at materials recovery facilities that must be sent to land lls.

Here are some tips to help you reduce the amount of contamination in your organics and recycling carts:

• Don’t put plastic utensils, plastic straws, produce stickers or plastic produce bags into your organics cart.

• Line your kitchen bin with a compostable liner to keep it clean. Compostable liners include paper bags, newspaper and certi ed-biodegradable plastic bags.

• Never place greasy pizza boxes or food into the recycling cart. ese go into the green cart with organics.

• Place food-soiled paper, such as paper towels and napkins, into your organics cart, not the recycling.

• Recycle only clean, dry paper and cardboard in the blue cart. is includes junk mail, o ce and school papers, printer paper, magazines, catalogs, empty cereal and shoe boxes, and cardboard.

• Toss loose recyclables into your blue cart. No plastic bags belong in the blue cart!

• Keep batteries OUT of your carts. Not only will they contaminate the load, but they also create re hazards.

• Never put diapers or wipes into organics or recycling carts! ese items should be bagged and go into your black trash cart.

To learn more about organics, recycling and waste disposal programs o ered by Republic Services to residents and businesses in Alhambra, visit RepublicServices.com/municipality/alhambra-ca.