County Has Removed Rigid Plastics Recycling Bins from Recycling Dropoff Sites

NOTE: The following information was released by the Orange County Solid Waste Management Department. For more information, call 968-2788 or e-mail recycling@co.orange.nc.us.
 

Due to excessive contamination levels — sometimes exceeding 50 percent — Orange County Solid Waste Management has permanently removed the large, purple roll-off bins for recycling rigid plastics from four unstaffed recycling sites.

The bins will remain at the five staffed solid waste convenience center sites. Materials accepted in the purple bins are resin types Nos. 2, 4 and 5 cups, tubs, buckets, pipe, lawn furniture and other non-bottle plastics.
 
Since February 2010, Orange County had been collecting the non-bottle rigid plastics for recycling from both staffed convenience center sites and unstaffed recycling sites. It averaged about 13 tons of incoming material per month, of which about 9 tons were suitable for sale. Of all the public recycling programs, the rigid plastics collection had the highest rate of contamination. County staff must manually sort and landfill contaminants before permitted recyclable material can be sent to market.
 
Rigid plastics No. 2 (HDPE), No. 4 (LDPE) and No. 5 (PP) include items such as 5-gallon buckets, cat litter buckets, plastic storage totes, plastic lawn furniture, black pipe and children’s pools. These items are not recycled when put in curbside recycling bins with cans and bottles. They may be recycled when kept separate and brought to the staffed solid waste convenience centers.

See the county Web page for a full list of acceptable plastics in the purple bins: www.co.orange.nc.us/recycling/rigidplastics.asp. Or call 968-2788 to request a pictorial brochure.