I recycle everything, even if I'm not sure if it's accepted. Is this okay?

Recycling has become part of the culture in Franklin County. People care about preserving natural resources and creating local jobs. While wanting to recycle everything is admirable, 'wish-cycling' can negatively impact the amount of materials you actually recycle.

Sorting facilities are highly engineered to deal with certain material types, and when other goods are introduced into the system many things can go wrong. The first step of this sorting process requires people to sort out contamination. The cleaner the material is of potentially dangerous or unaccepted items, the safer the workers are and the less likely the machines are to get jammed. Metal hangers, hoses, and plastic bags can easily get caught in machine gears and lead to a work stoppage or costly repair. Please be sure to recycle your plastic bags at a Bring Me Back location near you to keep the recycling process running smoothly. Likewise, putting batteries into the recycling can also creates a dangerous working environment for employees because batteries can cause fires in these facilities. Please find a location near you to recycle your batteries using our Recycling and Reuse Search Tool. Items that aren't accepted for recycling but are placed into the recycling bin anyway, just take a long detour to the landfill. These materials are not recycled if they aren't listed as accepted.

Show All Answers

1. What's accepted for recycling?
2. What's not accepted for recycling?
3. Why can't I bag my recyclables?
4. Why is it important to flatten cardboard boxes before placing them in my container?
5. How do I recycle in my community?
6. I live in an apartment, condo or other multi-family housing unit and don't have curbside. Where can I recycle?
7. What happens during the recycling process?
8. How does a recycling facility work?
9. What's our county's recycling rate?
10. Why is recycling important?
11. I recycle everything, even if I'm not sure if it's accepted. Is this okay?
12. How do I recycle items not accepted?
13. What do I do with my yard waste?
14. How do I recycle plastic bags?
15. Is there anywhere I can recycle #5 plastics?
16. What does a recycling symbol on a product mean?
17. What do the numbers of plastics mean?
18. Why aren't napkins, paper towels, or tissues accepted for recycling?
19. Why aren't coffee cups accepted?
20. Why isn't Styrofoam accepted?
21. What do I do with prescription drugs?
22. When are pizza boxes not accepted?
23. How can I report illegal dumping and littering?
24. Why are aluminum and steel cans accepted but other metals aren't?
25. Why are beverage/food cartons accepted?
26. What's made from recycled plastic bottles?
27. What's made from recycled aluminum cans?
28. What's made from recycled glass?
29. What's made from recycled cartons?
30. I've heard of a circular economy, but what exactly does that mean?
31. I want to reduce and reuse! What should I do?
32. Why are recycling and landfill bins sometimes emptied into the same container?
33. Why are recyclables not sorted out at the landfill?