Recycling Questions To Which I Should Know The Answers

[Anonymous]

My trash company doesn't post any helpful info about recyclying on its website (we live in NOVA). (1) Is it still necessary to separate plastic, paper, and glass? It seems like a lot of people in my neighborhood don't, but I thought we were supposed to. (2) When you recyle bottles, glass or plastic, do you also recycle the caps? (3) can any plastic container be recycled these days (such as clear take out containers, detergent bottles, etc.?), or do we still have to look at the numbers on the bottom? (4) can boxes that are "shiny," such as some cereal boxes, be recycled? TIA!!!

[Anonymous]

Your county website will have the information about recycling.

[Anonymous]

I am in Montgomery county but we dont separate, we do recycle the caps, and we recycle all the conatiners you listed. Our website didn't specify any of this either so we just tried everything, the only thing they don't accept here is styrofoam.

[Anonymous]

Do you have a private company or county provided services? The items that they allow to recycle usually vary based on the company or jurisdiction, so you might want to just call to find out for certain. Only itmes with a 1 or 2 on the bottom are actually recyclable (I have a few clients in the recycling industry) but some companies will collect items with other numbers. As for shiny paper/cardboard, it depends on the regulations of your trash company -- some will recycle magazines and cereal boxes, some won't. For some odd reason, my trash company (private -- we have to get our own trash company for the development we live in) won't recycle pizza boxes!

[Anonymous]

The last time I checked, they don't recycle bottle caps and the plastic containers that can be recycled have to have necks - so no yogurt cups, take out boxes, etc. And any paper must be free of food debris, so no pizza boxes. I don't think we have to separate. I live in Fairfax County and found a fact sheet somewhere. This was awhile back so the rules might have changed.

[Anonymous]

We use AAA in Ffx County. They gave us a huge recycle bin for single stream (all types go in one bin). The plastics can be anything with a number on it, so yogurt cups and the like are okay. They won't take pizza boxes though, which is weird, but they take cardboard.

[Anonymous]

We have American Disposal in NoVa and they have a good bit of info on their website but I would also check the FC site. Most offer "single stream" recycling and once I really looked at the list, there isn't much that can't be recycled.

http://www.aaatrash.com/Pages/SingleStreamRecycling.aspx

http://americandisposal.com/acceptedrecycling.php

If you have an HOA, check with them also. Something I just noticed between the 2 sites above is that for example one will take pizza boxes and the other won't - which seems way weird to me.