Recycling Authority January 2019 20000 West Eight Mile Road | Southfield 248-208-2270 | www.rrrasoc.org

Going Green in 2019 Happy New Year! Now’s the perfect time to take stock and assess your life, and perhaps re-evaluate some of your habits. Along with personal health and wealth goals, many people have goals for how to live more sustainably for the benefit of a larger community and the world. Here are a few changes that you can make to be more green in 2019. Use eco-friendly cleaners. Some of the benefits of using eco-friendly cleaners include: they make your home safer, protect your health, clean up the indoor air, and helps the environment. Reduce the amount of paper towels you use. The average homeowner spends almost $600.00 a year on disposable paper towels. Nearly 550,000 trees are used to produce paper towels. Using cloth towels can really make an impact. Meatless meals may sound over the top - but raising animals for food requires a lot of land, fossil fuel, water, and food. Cutting back on some of the meat you eat is a good way to reduce your environmental impact. It also has great health benefits and reduces your grocery bill.

Recycle Right!  Because Good Intentions Aren't Enough It’s important to remember that not everything can be recycled. Just because you want or wish something could be recycled, doesn’t mean that it can or will be. This is a phenomenon referred to as “wishcycling”. Here are some general guidelines on recycling:

Please DO This:  It's Important Because:

Do  NOT  put plastic bags in your recycling bin or cart. Plastic bags may be recycled at some local grocery and big box retailers. Look for collection containers in lobbies or service areas. Plastic bags wrap up around the many moving gears and parts of the sorting equipment at Materials Recovery Facilities (MRFs), causing jams that require shutting down the system and hours of manual removal of the bags each day. Check www.plasticfilmrecycling.org to find recycling locations.

Place recyclables loose in your recycling bin or cart. Recyclables placed in plastic bags slow down the sorting time at the MRF and are sometimes removed from the sorting lines and thrown away. This is done for the safety of employees that sort material by hand and to prevent potential contamination of material on sorting lines, since often times, bags are not transparent.

Do  NOT  put foam products (Styrofoam) in your recycling bin or cart. Foam products are NOT recyclable with curbside recycling programs. Check www.homeforfoam.com to find recycling locations.

Keep propane tanks and pressurized containers  OUT  of the recycling bin, cart and trash containers. These containers present a real danger in the waste stream because they can cause fires, explosions, serious injury or death if put into compactor trucks, recycling centers and other waste management equipment. Check www.bluerhino.com/propane-finder or www.amerigas.com/propane-locations to find tank exchange locations. Unusable tanks can be recycled or refurbished directly with the propane company.

Do NOT put syringes, lancets, needles or other medical waste in your recycling bin or cart. Syringes, lancets, needles and containers holding the used sharps are NOT recyclable and should  NEVER  go in your curbside recycling bin. These materials pose a serious hazards for workers at the MRF, as material is separated manually by hand. Sharps can be disposed in your curbside trash if properly packaged in a rigid container. For information on sharps disposal, visit https://safeneedledisposal.org or search the internet for “Michigan DEQ sharps disposal”.

Poll Results Last month we asked you from a list of items which were not acceptable in your recycle bin/cart. We have our results and most of those that responded were correct in saying that greasy pizza boxes are not accepted in your recycle bin/cart. Holiday cards were the next closest and that could have been a trick question. Cards are accepted as long as they do not contain glitter or metallic decorations. We are always happy to see newspaper, junk mail/mail, magazines, and cardboard in the recycle bins/carts. Thank you for taking our poll!

Download Our Mobile App

With our mobile app knowing where and how to recycle items is right at your fingertips. The video below shows you how easy it is to use. Check our directory to see if items are reusable, donatable, recyclable, or actual garbage. Type in your item or suggest an item if it is not in the directory.

RRRASOC - Recycling Authority | 248-208-2270 | rrrasoc.org