About six years ago---during the COVID shutdown---I wrote a column about recycling here in Brunswick Couty. Back then I had been cleaning, sorting and taking things to the county’s landfill. At that time I reached out to the folks at the Brunswick County Solid Waste and Recycling Office to learn more about recycling in our county.
The title of that column was “It’s Easy to Flunk Recycling”. It’s still available on our website (once you put something up on the internet---it stays—forever---maybe like things in the landfill). I recently got a message from a reader who thought I should update this column. She was wondering if things have changed in these ensuing years. And yes, there are some changes.
OK…first, let’s talk about how people “flunk” recycling. This is called “wish-cycling” and I bet we’ve all been guilty of this at one time or another. Wish-cycling is when you put something in the recycling bin hoping that it’s acceptable and thinking that if it isn’t someone down- the- road will sort it out.
While it makes you feel like you’ve done the right thing, if you don’t really know if something is acceptable here in Brunswick County -- don’t “wish-cycle”. This tends to cause more problems, because someone has to physically pick those items out of the piles. In the long run this ends up costing all of us more. The rule-of-thumb is…if in doubt throw it in the trash.
What we do here in Brunswick County is called “single-stream recycling”. This is when residential recyclables are collected together. These items are then taken to a MRF (Material Recovery Facility) where different categories of recyclables are sorted. However, MRFs are not designed to separate trash from recyclable materials. Contamination worsens when well- meaning folks put non-accepted items in their recycling because they hope it’s good. Again, wishful recycling.
There are lots of things that can be RECYCLED….but not all of them are able to be recycled here. In general metal, paper, glass and some plastics are acceptable. I reached out to Shamonica Sharpless, the Solid Waste and Recycling Coordinator for Brunswick County for some answers to specific questions.
Q: What is recyclable and accepted here in Brunswick County?
A: You can recycle any bottle, tub, jug or jar. The best and most obvious are plastic and glass items like water bottles, soda bottles, shampoo, conditioner, mayo and peanut butter bottles. Plastic or “clamshell” containers that fruit and lettuce comes in are OK. Yogurt and cottage cheese containers are only accepted in the larger tubs not the small single-use or single-serving containers. They don’t want plastic garbage bags or plastic bags from the grocery store. Another tip that would really help, don’t put your recycling in plastic bags.
Q: Do we need to worry about numbers on plastic?
A: This is one thing that has changed. Brunswick County recycling now accepts #5 plastics…they didn’t do this six years ago. The only plastics accepted here in Brunswick County are #1’s, #2’s and #5s. But, numbers are not a true way to tell if something is accepted or not, single-use items with these numbers are not accepted---this includes no drink cups, no plastic plates and no plastic eating utensils.
Q: When I recycle a bottle or jar –like a water bottle or a salad dressing jar—should I also include the lid? A: The lid can be recycled, but it should be screwed back on the bottle or jar. If there was food in the jar wash it out as best as possible. They don’t want those skinny lids like those that come with margarine tubs or small yogurt cups that pop off. Q: What about shredded paper?
A: Shredded paper should be placed in your regular trash. Even if you put it in a paper bag or box, shredded paper will not be recognized by the sorting machines to be paper. Plus, shredded paper will fly off the conveyor belts and go all over the floor and it won’t make it through the sorting system. Each year in April the county sponsors a “shred event” where you can take your papers to have them shredded. Many commercial companies offer this service, too.
