Red Oak Sanitation

REQUEST SERVICE

Recycling
Made Easy

♻️ Know What to Recycle

Only put accepted materials in your recycling container.

  • Paper and cardboard
  • Metal cans
  • Plastic bottles and jugs

Keeping the wrong items out helps reduce contamination and ensures more materials get recycled.

♻️ Paper & Cardboard

You can recycle flattened cardboard, newspapers, magazines, office paper, and regular mail. Make sure that they are clean and free of food, liquid, or waste.


Helpful Tips:

  • Flatten boxes before recycling to save space and make processing easier.
  • Keep paper dry and uncontaminated. Once it is soiled, it cannot be recycled.
  • Remove extras like bubble wrap or plastic windows from padded envelopes before tossing them in the bin.

♻️ Metal Cans

You can recycle aluminum and steel food or drink cans. Just remove any labels and empty out leftover contents first.


Helpful Tips:

  • Give cans a quick rinse to remove residue. Then let them dry completely to prevent contamination.
  • Check for coating. Cans have insulated linings that cannot be recycle. If you are unsure, it is best to toss it out.
  • No need for perfection! Cans do not need to be spotless; just clean, and dry.

♻️ Plastic

You can recycle rigid plastic containers such as water bottles, milk jugs, and detergent bottles.
However, flexible plastics like grocery bags, bubble wrap, and Styrofoam, require special recycling programs and cannot be placed in your curbside bin.


Helpful Tips:

  • Keep lids attached to bottles and jugs. Loose caps are too small to recycle on their own.
  • Do the poke test. If you can push your finger through the plastic, it does not belong in your recycling container.
  • Skip the soft stuff. Only hard, rigid plastics should go in the bin.

♻️ No Soiled or Wet Materials

Keep recyclables empty, clean, and dry. Even a small amount of contamination can ruin a whole load of recycling.


Helpful Tips:

  • Avoid moisture and food residue. Once paper or cardboard gets wet or soiled it cannot be recycled.
  • Empty all liquids. No more than a teaspoon of liquid should remain in any recyclable.
  • Quickly rinse, then dry. Clean items help ensure everything in your bin gets recycled.

♻️ Do not Bag or Bundle

Always place recyclables directly in your recycling container, never put them in bags or other containers.


Why:

  • Plastic bags and containers can jam machinery causing delays or damage.
  • Bundled items cannot be sorted at the facility, so they often end up in a landfill.
  • Keep Materials Separate.
  • Mixed materials cannot be recycled together, even if each part is recyclable.

Tips for Sorting:

  • Separate connected materials, like a plastic insert in a paper envelope, before recycling.
  • Recycle only the recyclable portion. For example, remove the plastic window from an envelope and recycle just the paper.
  • Never bag your recycling. Separately place individual items info the bin for proper processing.

Save & Print

Trash vs Recycling (Know the Difference)
  • Click the image on the left to view.
  • Save image and print.