The Orange Department of Public Works wants to remind residents that plastic bags and plastic wraps are not considered recyclable and should not be placed in residents’ recycling bins. Bins that contain these materials will no longer be picked up.
Sylvie Napoli, office manager for Orange Public Works, said, “It’s been out there for years plastic bags are a non-recyclable item. We just have not been enforcing the rule too hard.”
The town’s recycling committee recently put a plastic bag recycling area at the transfer station to handle these materials. Many local stores also accept plastic bags for recycling.
“As a town our loads have been marked as contaminated and this week they have cracked down on the enforcement of this issue. Plastic bags are jamming up their conveyor belts resulting in repair cost and shut down time,” Napoli said.
Residents will not be fined for putting plastic bags in their bins, but the bins will not be picked up. Public Works will begin doing spot checks and tagging “contaminated” bins.
The town as a whole is paying fines to the recycling companies for the problems it is causing.
“I received and email with photos,” Napoli said, “and we are being heavily fined for the contaminated loads.”