Recycling contamination all too common problem

“Clean and Green – Think Before you Throw.”

Recycle Montana, Inc., came up with this motto a couple of years ago to make people more aware about contamination of recycle material. There are obvious contamination issues such as the dirty, cheesy, greasy, pizza box you put in with your cardboard or the last two swigs of milk you leave in the container.

Contamination goes much deeper. Aluminum cans are very popular to recycle; however, it is very common to crush and store the cans in a plastic bag. This is all great until the plastic bag with cans is put into the recycle bin as the plastic will contaminate the aluminum. Take the packing peanuts out of the cardboard box and remove all liquids and rinse plastic bottles.

The reality is that you must own your recycling program and not assume that your local recycling plant will easily pull out the piece of contamination. These plants are held to very high standards in insuring that their end products have minimal amounts of contamination. If they cannot be successful in this aspect, then they cannot sell their material nor accept recycling materials from the local community. We own what is put in the bin, and most all of us can do a much better job of educating ourselves and family members about the importance of eliminating contamination from recycling.

Kirk Treece is executive director of Recycle Montana.