Recycling

WE RECYCLE

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  • We recycle into two categories: 1. PAPER 2. GLASS / METAL / PLASTIC.

  • You may use your old trash containers to collect recyclables – loose – without bagging in clear bags.

  • Use one trashcan for the paper items, and another trashcan for your plastic, cans and glass. If you use trashcans, when you place recyclables out for pick up, place them at least two feet away from the blue container so the mechanical arm won’t knock them over and spill the contents. Spilled contents will not be picked- up by the recycling worker.

  • Plastic containers that have a 1 or 2 recycling symbol on the bottom are acceptable (like milk jugs and soda containers). Unmarked plastics are not acceptable. Plastic grocery bags are NOT acceptable even if they have the correct recycling symbol on the bottom.

  • Glass jars and bottles must be rinsed. Labels do not need to be removed.

  • Flattening cans helps save space. Aluminum pie tins are acceptable. Aluminum foil is NOT acceptable.

  • Caps (plastic or metal) are recyclable but must be removed. NO ceramic, bake-ware, light bulbs, window glass or mirrors. DO NOT BREAK GLASS TO SAVE SPACE.

  • Paper can include newspaper, magazines (even National Geographic), phone books, cereal and pizza boxes and even junk mail. Cardboard boxes should be separate, flattened or bundled for easier collection. No Styrofoam cups/plates, soiled paper napkins or towels, no diapers.

  • The recycling collection truck may appear to have one door for depositing your recyclables, but inside the door there are two chutes that keep items separated. Your work is not in vain!

  • If residents try to sneak old clothing or other unacceptable items into the bottom of recycling containers, the worker may reject the whole container.

  • If you do not have old trashcans to sort recyclables, clear trash bags are available at Peabody Market and Peabody Hardware & Lumber Company. The workers must be able to clearly see through the bag. Do not use black trash/leaf bags.

2008 RATE

$ 2.50 PER MONTH

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Picture courtesy of Stutzman Refuse Disposal, Inc.

WHY RECYCLE ?


PAPER is sorted into three piles – cardboard, newspaper, and mixed paper. The mixed paper is baled and sent to Temco Roofing in Phillipsburg or to the plant in southeast Missouri, where it is made into tar paper or shingles. Cardboard and newspapers are sent to a company which makes biscuit board and tube rolls for bath tissue, paper towels, and so forth.

GLASS – A machine separates glass items from the pile of solid trash, then crushes it and makes it into sand. Stutzmans use it in their business – maybe the only place in the state that makes glass into sand.

ALUMINUM CANS also are automatically sorted and are sold to a scrap dealer. They are more profitable than other trash items. There is always a demand for aluminum cans, while often there is no market for other products.

TIN CANS are separated with a magnetic device mounted over a conveyor belt. The tine is baled and sent to steel mills. There is no market for tin at present, so it goes to the mills.

TWO-LITER SODA POP JUGS are hand-sorted and made into 600-700 pound bales, which go to North Carolina, Georgia, or Alabama. The plastic usually is made into carpet fibers, although some goes to Coca Cola to be made into new bottles.

MILK JUGS are sorted by hand and formed into 800 bales, and shipped to Georgia or Alabama. Some are made into plastic lumber and soap jugs. Milk jugs have the best return for jugs, paying for the labor involved in processing them.

LAUNDRY SOAP JUGS and other colored plastics have to be baled separately. The 800 pound bales go to the same place as the milk jugs but are used for a different purpose. They produce a gray plastic when melted down and so are not as valuable.

STYROFOAM and PLASTIC BAGS are two items, which end up as trash and go to a landfill. There is no market for them.