Start saving your clear plastic 鈥渃lamshell鈥� containers 鈥� the ones that often hold berries or salad. Rumpke will start accepting those and clear plastic egg cartons as recyclables in November.
And did you know you can already recycle clear plastic to-go cups, like the ones that hold iced coffee 鈥� unless they have that little green line that reads 鈥渃ompostable.鈥�
Recycling can be confusing. That鈥檚 why Matthew King set out to answer people鈥檚 questions. He visits farmers markets and posts on social media to bust common recycling myths. He also takes hard-to-recycle items like pet food bags, Swiffer pads, gift cards and more. King takes those things to the specialty recycler TerraCycle in Dayton.
Helping folks recycle right
Last week, King was at the Upper Arlington Farmers Market. His booth sported a big, yellow sign that read, 鈥淩ecycling Questions Answered.鈥� Plastic bags hung from the tent, swaying in the wind. Yogurt containers and Tupperware dangled from a string. And there were plenty of signs listing facts about recycling.
Donna Berlo, of Columbus, stopped by the tent to ask if she鈥檇 been recycling her paper plates correctly.
鈥淥h, paper plates,鈥� King said. 鈥淲ell, no, you can't 鈥� you cannot recycle paper plates. No, no. Food contamination is like the worst.鈥�
鈥淥h wow, I鈥檓 really doing this all wrong,鈥� Berlo lamented.
She pointed to an egg carton on the table and asked, 鈥渋s that okay?鈥�
King, wearing his 鈥淢ake American Green Again鈥� hat and a polo with a recycling symbol, explained yes, the cardboard egg carton is recyclable, though it probably can only be recycled one more time.
Some things, like aluminum and glass, can be recycled repeatedly. Others can only be recycled a limited number of times.
King, of Columbus, doesn鈥檛 have a degree in sustainability, but he knows a lot about recycling. He started researching recycling in 2020 when his hometown of Cleveland lost its recycling contractor.
鈥淚 just thought no one else was doing it, so I'd be the one to promote it,鈥� he said.
He said plenty of people are confused, and it鈥檚 not their fault. Recycling isn鈥檛 always straightforward.
Some common misconceptions:
鈥淣umber one, the number one worst thing you can do is put contamination into recycling. When in doubt, throw it out,鈥� King said.
Contamination can include food, like sauce and cheese on a cardboard pizza box, chemicals, tape or sticker paper.
RELATED 鈥� Columbus recycling center considered largest and most advanced in North America
King said plastic water bottles should be recycled with their caps on, because otherwise, the caps are too small. Most of the time, an item has to be at least three inches by three inches 鈥� or about the size of your fist 鈥� to be recycled in Ohio.
Glass jars with metal lids, though, need to be separated. Otherwise, the whole thing might end up in a landfill, King said. Though, at some recycling facilities, the glass will break and separate from the jar lid and make it through the facility. But the materials can鈥檛 be recycled if they stay together.
鈥淭hey want the metal and they want the glass. But you have to put them in separately,鈥� King said.
King says keeping different materials separate is a big part of recycling. You can recycle a plastic Amazon bag if you remove the paper label, he said.
And caps should come off milk and broth cartons, according to Rumpke Waste & Recycling.
Labels don鈥檛 necessarily have to come off plastic containers and jars. It鈥檚 good to rinse them out, but they don鈥檛 have to be completely clean. In fact, King says scrubbing is just a waste of water.
For things like peanut butter jars, King recommends letting a dog do some of the work, or leaving the container to soak overnight so the water dissolves the food.
It鈥檚 all, well, confusing.
Berlo certainly thought so. 鈥淭o be the only one that's messing this up. What do you do with everything that people are putting in, thinking is it getting recycled," he asked. 鈥淲hat happens to all that?鈥�
Sorting it all out
Items that can鈥檛 be recycled typically do go to the landfill.
When people recycle correctly, however, about 98% of the material that comes into a facility actually does get recycled, according to Rumpke Waste East Area Communication Manager Jeff Meyers.
Myers said Rumpke runs items through the facility twice to make sure they get as much as they can before the truly unsalvageable items are sent away.
鈥淥ne of the primary complaints is, or the primary comment, is that it isn't happening and everything just goes to the landfill. And I can say that is not true,鈥� Myers said.
Rumpke handles curbside recycling in Columbus and much of central Ohio. Most items recycled here go to Rumpke鈥檚 new $100 million Resource and Recycling Center near Linden.
The more than 220,000-square-foot facility that opened this summer has been billed as the largest and most advanced in North America. It uses scanners with artificial intelligence to help sort materials before they鈥檙e bundled with similar items and sent to partners who turn them into something new.
What can or can't be recycled?
Rumpke for recycling, but there are some things Those items include garden hoses, electrical cords or anything that could gum up machines. Rumpke also does not accept batteries, because they can be dangerous.
鈥淭hey get squashed and they spark and they cause fires. Even dead batteries are dangerous,鈥� Meyers said.
But batteries can be taken to some specialty recyclers, like the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio鈥檚 Convenience Center on the city鈥檚 south side. IKEA accepts alkaline batteries. Home Depot and Lowe鈥檚 take rechargeable battery packs from power tools and cell phones. Staples and Best Buy will recycle rechargeable lithium-ion and nickel batteries, according to King.
Rumpke also doesn鈥檛 accept plastic bags, but Kroger bags can be returned to Kroger.
Rumpke has a total of 14 recycling facilities in several states, including a specialty glass recycling facility in Dayton. Meyers said the company is always looking to expand what they accept, but that requires two factors to align: items have to be capable of going through Rumpke鈥檚 machinery and Rumpke needs a partner that can turn that specific material into something new.
Meyers said the best thing folks can do is familiarize themselves with the acceptable items list. People can also start thinking about recycling when doing their grocery shopping instead of after the fact.
鈥淚f you're buying products which are recyclable, then you're doing your part,鈥� Meyers said.
