this morning we are continuing the
conversation about recycling at 6:00 and
7:00 we showed you the biggest mistakes
that many of you are making without
realizing it the things that you think
are recyclable but actually need to be
thrown away in your trash can instead
now we're answering your questions about
what can go in your bin and what needs
to go in the garbage Jaison graves and
Bill Brinkley join us from Republic
Services which is the company if you
don't know it that recycles nearly all
of your plastics cardboard and glass
depending upon where you live but pretty
much most of Northeast Florida the
beaches area st. Johns County Nassau and
Clay County parts of that if I do recall
based on memory thanks guys for being
here and to appreciate it we have
received quite a bit of questions so I
want to just start if we could because I
think that this really helps because I
had no idea that I was doing many things
wrong and I've done a couple of stories
on recycling so let's get right to that
I'm gonna start with you bill first our
plastic bags recyclable in the City of
Jacksonville recycling program I presume
that we're talking about these kinds of
grocery bags right those types of
grocery bags they're not recycle in our
city of jacks single stream recycling
program you can take those back to the
store that you got them from and they
have recycling bins out front but in our
system they have a tendency to clog the
system up and shutdowns are not good in
our business it's expensive
absolutely so but they can't be taken
back to the where you got it so the
point is is that these are recyclable
you just can't throw them away and your
recycling bin at home you want to take
them to the stores because they do
recycle them n right does the same thing
hold for this as well I know that you
can't put this anything you can poke
your finger through right it's not
recyclable at home absolutely again that
jams up the system and it's it's not
good for productivity so you can't take
those back and put take them to the
store and put them in those bins for
loose loose plastic recycling but just
not in our single stream process okay
Jason next one how come I can't leave my
recyclable items in a bag we probably
just answered that so like a garbage bag
which is a mistake that we were making
at home yeah the plastic bag is not
recyclable but also in case people do
put food waste or other trash items in a
plastic bag along the sorting process
our sorters are not gonna be able to see
that what's coming
and we don't want to just rip a bag open
and potentially contaminate what was
clean recyclables or something dirty
so it's interesting cuz Pam post on our
Facebook page she said do all of the
jars and bottles need to be very clean
or if if they aren't clean then do they
get thrown in the landfill so I have
today I picked this one out because the
word is slowly getting through to my the
rest of my family in the house but you
know favorite peanut butter of my 14
year old son it is empty but there's
still a bunch of food in it you can't
throw this in the recycling right Jason
no we go with empty clean and dry that's
that's on our website that's what we
preach is empty clean and dry a little
bit of food can contaminate a lot of
clean recyclable
just a tablespoon the ketchup could ruin
a whole a whole bin of your recyclable
if that ketchup leaks out and gets on
the paper and the same thing with any
water any liquids correct correct
correct water water liquid gatorade
dressing anything like that they could
leak out and get all over the clean
recycle and I think this is an important
point for those people who aren't as
familiar as I've now educated myself on
this through the help of both of you is
that you're selling to you know a
business or because this is somewhat of
a commodity you are selling to them and
if they go through it and find that it's
been contaminated with liquid or food it
ends up the entire bail has to get
thrown away correct this isn't you being
difficult the company being it's it's
yeah it's bail integrity and they will
come out and they will do spot checks on
the bills that we're we're shipping out
to them and we we have those
contamination issues and I'll tell you
the average bail should be maybe two
point five percent max of contamination
and it's coming in and kudos that a City
of Jacksonville our contamination has
gotten a little better over time
but it's still coming in around around
that twenty percent so Jason's team
there has to process it get it down to
about two percent
contamination that's a lot so it you
know empty clean and dry and you know
when in doubt throw it out if you're not
sure just throw it out as much as we
don't like doing that because we want to
think that it's going to the recycling
but in the long run we're also having
questions Leticia actually posted can we
put styrofoam cups and containers in the
recycle bin though you want to answer
that one or Jason welage Aysen yeah well
just like your plastic bags go to your
groceries
or they have styrofoam bins as well so
in the residential recycle stream we
don't want that styrofoam in coming to
us or that way you can take the egg
carton styrofoam cups can I'll go back
to you know your local grocery store
where they have bends or they can be
recycled I've had a couple of questions
actually also from people who are asking
about the tops so we've got like for
this this would be to be emptied out
correct and then what about the top tops
we stay on the tops can stay on or if
you're gonna take it off through the
tops in the trash okay really quick
because I have to point this out I was
stunned bill and what I was talking to
Jason about this during the break by
some of the things that I saw that were
being recycled I have pictures actually
I just want to show them to our viewers
this is a plastic jug which under any
other time would be recyclable but it is
filled with I have been Herrmann needles
so someone tried to recycle I mean if
you think about thankfully this was
still it hadn't busted open but what
that would have done to some of your
workers
right I mean safety is our number one
priority and that is a huge risk to our
employees potentially getting poked by a
hypodermic needle we have a process
where when we see something like that we
have to stop our line completely stop
the whole process so just like a jam or
anything else we stop the line so we can
you know control the situation and
remove that product yeah so please don't
don't try to obviously we understand
that the plastic may have confused you
but you don't want to put that in your
recycle same with aerosol cans and one
other thing also Jason that you found
when we were out there this is like some
kind of the metal rod why is this a
problem
well do the conveyor systems and magnets
and uh you know that we use to separate
the material and I don't like that could
easily get twisted the wrong way it
could rip a belt right in half stop the
entire process get jammed in on one of
our hundreds of pulleys that we have to
up the process and you know that can
just do a lot of damage to our equipment
guys thanks for being here I really it
really cleared up a lot of
misconceptions of course if you missed
any of my earlier stories which detail
what you should not ever recycle they
are posted inside this story on the
morning show page of news for Jack's
comm we've also included a link to
recycling simplified which can answer
any questions that you might still have