Ready your rollout recycling cart

For those of you who’ve been holding on to your new recycling carts for months, we’ve got good news: It’s time to roll ’em out. Or, well, almost. The new recycling program begins next Monday — one week from today.

For those of you with questions, here are a few CharMeck.org links regarding the new recycling program:

Introducing the new collection schedule (Remember: your recyclables will be picked up every other week. Here’s a map and a handy bilingual calendar.)

Here’s a list of what can be recycled (Good news: a lot more can be recycled than before.)

Specifically, here’s information on what types of plastics can be recycled. Note: only No. 6 plastics (like food trays and CD cases) cannot be recycled.

There’s also this reminder on the county’s site: “According to state law, plastic numbers 1 and 2 and aluminum should always be recycled and never discarded in the garbage.” … not that anyone is actually paying attention to that law.

If you haven’t received your cart yet, click here. (Remember: not every municipality within Mecklenburg County is participating, though all will be able to accept the new list of recyclable items.)

Here’s more information than you ever wanted to know about the infamous “chip”, which is embedded into the rollout containers. Bottom line, it’s about speeding up the record keeping process and targeting which neighborhoods need to some recycling pointers. Yes, it’s a little big brother-ish, but so is Facebook. Get over it. Collectors were tracking this information by hand before.

Now, what should you do with your red recycling bins? You can toss them in the rollout canisters to be recycled or you can keep them. You decide.

The stuff that’s still not recyclable: pizza boxes, plastic caps, plastic bags, plastic food trays and cups, ceramics, pots, pans and glassware, paper plates, paper napkins, batteries, light bulbs, plastic hangers and Styrofoam. And, they don’t want your shredded paper either.

If that’s not enough information, here’s a list of frequently asked questions about the new program.

The county estimates the new Recycle It! program will save taxpayers $15 million over five years and $43 million over 10 years. That is definitely good news we can all appreciate.

Why recycle?

This article appears in Jun 22-28, 2010.