For those of us living in the Washington, DC area, recycling and the rules surrounding what and how we recycle leaves most of us totally confused. But really, it’s the center of government for our nation, how could we not expect a ton of bureaucracy and rules for everything we do, even something as seemingly simple as recycling. This makes it even funnier that D.C. Department of Public Works director William Howland noted, “The whole concept of going to the single stream was to make it as convenient as possible?” Convenient? Well, maybe it will be once we sort out what we can and can’t recycle.
So, we now have a single stream system, meaning that everything you want to recycle goes into the blue bin on your driveway, or in a brown paper bag left beside the trash bins. Paper, plastic, glass, aluminum and cardboard all go in together, no sorting. Which honestly is pretty sweet. But there are a few rules. (Of course, there are always rules, right?)
Rule one: No Styrofoam. It’s not worth Washington D.C.’s time and money to try to recycle that stuff, so it’s out. Try to convince your local take-out to go with more sustainable options anyways.
Rule two: No clamshell plastic. It’s low-grade plastic that doesn’t recycle well.
Rule three: Plastic bags, you know the ones you get from the grocery store, the flimsy ones that can barely hold a box of cereal and a jar of peanut butter (both containers you can recycle, btw!) without breaking? They basically gum up the works, make things difficult back at the recycling plant. But don’t despair, all is not lost. If you take all the plastic bags you have and wrap them all up together in one plastic bag, they will get recycled.
Rule four: Items can’t be soiled. This rule is mainly for paper products. If you have a jar of oil or peanut butter or something, don’t worry about scrubbing and scrubbing until it’s perfectly sanitized. Just get it relatively clean. With plastics and glass that is good enough. But paper, once it’s soiled, it’s done. So that greasy pizza you ordered with a side of extra grease (the really good kind) turns your paper into trash, not recycling. So just toss it. Or order the healthy kind of pizza, the greaseless, tasteless kind.
And that’s it. Okay, so it’s not anything goes. But there are only a few short rules, and really they are pretty common sense when you think about it. So let’s recycle DC, it’s as easy as it’s going to get. And if you have any questions and just need more clarification you can call 311 or the Department of Public Works at (202) 673-6833.
