Less than 10% of plastic that we encounter every day in our lives is recyclable. Plastic food containers are all that we recycle in our community and curbside recycling containers and all other plastic items are pretty much trash. The chasing arrows emblem that often has a number inside the triangle only helps other manufacturers to understand what type of plastic the item is made from.

This emblem does not mean that the item is recyclable.

Of all of the items that we could recycle, most of them consist mainly of empty, food containers and paper (not shredded paper or books) in our curbside containers and our community recycling bins. We all have a great understanding about most of the items that we can recycle but when it comes to plastic items it is only difficult because of the plastic resin codes that are on most, if not all, plastic packaging.

Every spring brings the need to do spring-cleaning and with that, the urge to throw away things like plastic kiddie pools or vacuum cleaners that no longer work or those plastic plant pots that we just purchased for our gardens. While each and every of these items has the plastic resin code somewhere on them, they are not recyclable.

The reason why they are not recyclable is that when we place our items into the carts or the large community container, we assume that it will be recycled no matter what. After all, we all took the initiative to get that particular plastic item into the recycling system, right? Wrong!

We can only accept items that the buyer of our recycling has a market to sell those items. The recycling that is collected from your curbside cart or from the community recycling containers travels first to the recycling transfer station in Redwood Falls. The next step is that our recycling is sent to a recycler called Dem-Con, which is located in Shakopee.

The plastic items that we can accept concisely are tubs, jugs and plastic bottles that were food containers or personal care containers. These would include such items as soda bottles, water bottles, butter tubs, yogurt tubs, shampoo bottles, laundry detergent bottles, milk jugs, berry containers, lotion bottles, ketchup and mustard bottles, whipped cream tubs, deli meat tubs, ice cream buckets, sour cream containers, cat litter tubs (this is an exception to the food rule and does not include pet food bags or bagged cat litter), cottage cheese containers and peanut butter containers.

There are a handful of items that repeatedly show up in recycling that are not recyclable. These include: kids plastic swimming pools, plastic flower pots, oil containers, hoses of any kind, Styrofoam (call us how to recycle this item — it is NOT retrieved from curbside carts or community recycling bins), plastic bags of any kind including cat/dog food bags, mulch bags, rock bags, furniture plastic cover film or sheeting, automotive parts, and toys. Single use plastics such as cups, plates, straws, cutlery, and the like are also not recyclable. These items are all trash!

The plastic problem isn’t your fault, but you can be part of the solution. We can try to choose aluminum pop cans over plastic bottles of pop. We can choose to use a reusable water bottle whenever it is possible to do so. We can choose to stop using single use plastic items such as plastic cutlery, plastic shopping bags, Styrofoam food containers, plastic straws, and plastic cups. We can instead use real cutlery, real glasses or use paper cups or a reusable straw instead. We can choose to cut these single use items out of our lives or try to reduce their use as much as possible. Be part of the solution and try to recycle right Lyon County!