Curbside recycling is supposed to be simple—but even with a list of materials, the conscientious recycler may still have so many questions. Can you recycle lids? Do you have to remove labels? How clean do your items have to be? And yes or no on glass bottles and plastic clamshells?
Here's the latest information we have, direct from the Shawnee County Solid Waste Department in February 2024. If you still have questions, we'd suggest reaching out to them. We've found them to be responsive and good-humored. And we think it helps if they're aware of the questions people have so they can make sure to address them in their customer communication. The Solid Waste Office email address: solidwaste@snco.us.
Now, without further ado, here are their guidelines:
1) Plastic
#1, #2, and #5 only—but the mere presence of that number does not mean they want it in the bin. They really only want bottles and tubs. Rinsed out. Lids on the bottles, since they don't want lots of little pieces of plastic floating around. Nothing smaller than a credit card.
2) Paper
No need to remove staples or plastic windows.
3) Cardboard
Can be recycled in your curbside tote or in the large yellow dumpsters throughout town. Those locations are listed here. Important note: You can put paperboard and cardboard in your curbside bin, but only put cardboard in the yellow dumpsters. The difference is that paperboard is white inside when you tear it, whereas cardboard is brown.
4) Aluminum
Cans only, no foil or pans (take those to the scrap metal facility).
5) Tin and Steel Cans
Rinse them out, but you don't need to wash thoroughly. And no need to remove labels.
6) Glass
Not recycleable curbisde, so drop it in one of the glass recycling bins throughout town. They take glass bottles of all colors as well as most other types of glass that you can see through.
And that's it! The best way to make sure your recycleables get recycled is by keeping the recycling stream as clean as possible. As much as we all want to wishcycle, it's better to throw away (or TerraCycle!) anything you're not sure about.
