30 Days of Earth Day: (Day 2) Know your recycling...

Many cities across the country have curbside recycling which makes it very easy to do something good for the environment. However each city and town's regulations are not the same.  For instance while nearly every program takes paper, glass and aluminium when it comes to plastics things can get tricky.

For instance, not all programs accept No. 2 plastic, some accept plastic grocery bags and others do not. Often a visit to your local public works website will help you determine what plastics your towns program accepts.  You may find that you what you thought was recyclable isn't or better yet find that your town has expanded your program and now accepts more than you expected.

Why is this important? If you place non-recyclable materials in your recycle bin these items will generally be removed during the facility's sorting process and still end up in a landfill or burned in an incinerator.  If you know that your town doesn't accept a certain kind of plastic you can make an effort to buy products that do not use that form of plastic which prevents it from ending up as just one more piece of trash.

If you want to learn more about plastics and how to identify the different types the EPA has an informative page which you can visit by clicking here.