#1 Tip to Prevent Contaminating Your Recycling Bin

Hey neighbor, are you a wishful recycler?

A wishful recycler is someone who throws items into the recycling bin hoping they will be recycled, even if they are not accepted for recycling in our community. We get it — we don’t love throwing stuff away in the garbage either, but this well-intentioned act can cause major problems for our recycling program. In the world of recycling, the act of tossing non-recyclable items in the recycling bin is called contamination. In 2023, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) estimated that contamination rates in the state jumped up 5% after remaining relatively stable for several years. For this reason, Deschutes County is taking measures to educate the public on how they can prevent contamination.

You may notice a new educational tag on your recycling bin over the next few weeks. Deschutes County Solid Waste (DCSW) is rolling out the Clean Cart education program. These contamination awareness tags aim to help residents better understand what can and cannot be recycled to avoid contamination in the recycling stream. 

When non-recyclables sneak into your bin, the consequences pile up — good recyclables get sent to landfill, sorting equipment jams up, workers at the Portland sorting facilities face safety hazards, and processing costs go up. 

So what’s the single biggest thing you can do to keep your cart clean?

Our #1 tip to avoid contamination — keep your recyclables loose, in other words, keep plastic bags and liners out of the bin! In fact, keep all plastic film/plastic wrap out of the curbside recycling bin. DCSW highlights that “plastic bags and film plastic are especially problematic because they can become tangled in processing equipment and create hazards for workers.” 

You can learn more about recycling right here and learn more about the Clean Cart program here.

While plastic bags and plastic film can’t go in your curbside recycling bin, there are other options. If you live within Bend city limits, Cascade Disposal and Republic Services now offer an additional paid porch-side pickup for hard-to-recycle materials including plastic bags and films through the Recycle Plus program. For a full list of hard-to-recycle drop-off locations, visit RecycleOn.org/OregonCenters.

Recycling can be complicated, but it doesn’t have to be! When in doubt, don’t be a wishful recycler, leave it out of the recycling bin. Better yet, look for opportunities to reduce, reuse, and repair first. Together, we can keep our recycling stream clean and make sure more materials actually get a second life.