Pete Adrian, Recycling Coordinator with the Solid Waste Agency of Lake County (SWALCO) and Anissa Chaudhry, LCFP Environmental Educator, hosted a fun and informative webinar about recycling in Lake County on 1/18. Here are a few of the new things we learned;

• Toss out alkaline batteries when you’re done, do not make a big bag and hope you can recycle it somewhere. This causes a concentration of chemicals in the landfill and your home. Put a piece of tape on one end of dead batteries to reduce the risk of fire and to help you remember that it no longer works.
• Do not bother recycling condiment cups, they are generally too small and have too much food residue. Use the “Fist Test” to determine if something is too small to be recycled. If it is smaller than your fist it will probably be too small to be recovered by the sorting machines.
• Get your plastics and steel cans “spatula clean” before recycling, don’t waste tons of water cleaning them out. Most labels will be removed or destroyed during the recycling process.
• Most plastic film recycling programs accept many things including; Amazon prime package, bubble mailers, dry cleaning bags and more.
• Do not add shredded paper to your curbside bin, it ends up all over the bin and facility. Try to go to shredding events or compost it. For all other paper and cardboard, use the fist test.
• Almost 25% of all waste in the trash bin is food. When it rots in a landfill it creates methane, a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. Composting is an easy way to divert this material and turn it into a useful soil amendment. There are many curbside composting programs including ours in HP.