Wishcycling: Don’t Do It.

Hi, it’s Leslie. Barbara Mandrell once sang, I was country when country wasn’t cool. I feel like that with recycling. I’ve been recycling for well over 30 years, but, I recently found out that in some ways I was doing more harm than good.

Wishcycling is a term that has been given to items that areput into recycling bin, but shouldn’t be.

We all learned a couple of years ago that plastic straws shouldn’t be recycled, but you did know that plastic cutlery also should not be recycled? It’s too small and can jam up the recycling equipment.

Plastic and glass bottles should go into the recycling bin, but not the caps. In fact, the rule of thumb is that nothing smaller than a Post-It note should be recycled.

Also, and I see a lot of people do this, do not, do not, DO NOT throw your plastic bags into your recycling bin. They can be recycled with other plastic bags, usually by taking them to the grocery store, but they absolutely should NOT go into your recycling bin. They can also jam the recycling equipment.

Don’t put anything that can get tangled into recycling bin. This would include things like garden hoses, bicycle chains and holiday lights. In fact, electronics should never go into your regular recycling bins. Watch for electronic recycling events in your area. Fuel containers and yard waste also need to stay out of your recycling bins.

Let’s all do our part and recycle more things that need to be recycled, and less of the things that shouldn’t be!