Local jurisdictions will be fined for contaminted recyclables

It’s time to get serious about recycling in Myrtle Beach.  As the market for recyclables declines internationally, we need to provide the cleanest recycling possible if the effort is to have any value.  The Horry County Solid Waste Authority has notified local jurisdictions that they will be fined for every contaminated load of recyclables.  (Fines start at $150 per load that is delivered to the Solid Waste Authority.)  We need to be clean and green, especially with our residential recycling! 

First, do not bag your recycling.  Just place loose items all together in your recycling container (the green rollout cart or the older blue bin, if you still have one of those).  Second, the list of recyclable items has narrowed.  For example, you cannot recycle pizza boxes because of contamination from grease or cheese.  That's how tight the market is now; throw that pizza box in the trash, please. 

Second, rinse food containers and follow this list of recyclable items:  aluminum and tin cans; cardboard boxes (remove all packing and tape); catalogs, magazines and newspapers; corrugated cardboard and paper bags (clean; not greasy); empty aerosol cans (no caps); glass bottles and jars (remove lids); office paper, school paper and junk mail; paperback books and telephone books; and only #1 and #1 plastic items, which typically will be pourable plastic bottles and jugs. 

And, here's a list of what is NOT accepted:  appliances, cardboard pizza boxes, clothes, hoses, non-pourable plastic containers (butter and yogurt cups, for example, or anything with a #3 or higher recycling mark), scrap metal, shoes, tires and toys.  (Scrap metal and tires can be recycled at the Transfer Station, but not in the residential recycling program.)