Here’s the latest in a series by the Easton Energy & Environment Task Force (EEETF) to spread the word about how to dispose of different items. This month focuses on food waste, another significant contaminant in our recycling stream.
What is the problem with food waste?
While few people toss garbage or other food waste into the recycling cart on purpose, accidental food scraps and grease residue can contaminate otherwise recyclable materials, rendering them unsuitable for recycling.
Food contamination —which includes things like pizza scraps, unwashed cans and jars, and unrinsed milk cartons — can create a damp, smelly, and bacteria-filled environment, damaging recyclable materials like paper, cardboard, and plastics. As mentioned in previous articles, contaminated recycling ends up as garbage, destined for incineration or landfill.
What’s the solution?
Here are quick and easy ideas to help solve the food waste problem:
1. Tell everyone in your household: avoid putting loose food or food residue in the recycling bin.
2. Rinse containers until they no longer smell like food.
3. Tear off and discard the greasy parts of pizza boxes and recycling the remaining clean cardboard.
4. Consider backyard composting as a solution for most food waste. Here’s a short video from the CT Dept of Energy & Environmental Protection that shows how simple composting can be: Kitchen to Garden – CT Compost Video
5. If you’re interested in composting but don’t want to do it yourself, there are services that collect food waste (for a fee), such as Action Waste Solutions and RWS.
6. If composting is not an option for you, put your food waste in the garbage.
Remember: Contaminated recycling raises Easton’s costs. You can support the quality of Easton’s recycling stream in other ways:
• When in doubt, throw it out.
• Keep your recycling as clean and dry as possible.
• A recycling symbol doesn’t mean an item is necessarily recyclable in our single-stream program.
• Small items (less than 2”x2”) clog sorting machines and should be trashed.
RecycleCT is always a great reference to confirm “what’s in and what’s out” and to help avoid wish-cycling (hoping that something is recyclable and putting it in the cart just in case).
Keep an eye out for next month’s Recycling Tip! Questions or comments? Email the EEETF at eastonenergytf@gmail.com.
