{chasing arrows symbol} Who is required to recycle?
Everyone! The Mandatory Recycling Act went into effect in Connecticut on January 1, 1991. It applies to every business, every household, every institution and every government agency.

What items do I have to recycle?
Everyone in the state is required to recycle the following items: glass food and beverage containers; metal food and beverage containers; newspapers; corrugated cardboard; leaves; scrap metal; used motor oil; lead-acid batteries; white office paper (households exempt); grass clippings and nickel-cadmium batteries.

What if I live in an apartment building or condo or if I run a small business, who is responsible for providing recycling services?
Although some towns provide trash and recycling service to small multi-family residences (2 or 3 apartments), most apartment buildings, condo associations and businesses contract directly with a trash hauler to provide trash and recycling service. The law requires "source separation". This means that you must separate the recyclables from the trash where they are generated. Your hauler cannot separate them later if they have been mixed with trash.

Are schools required to recycle?
Yes! Both public and private schools are required to recycle all of the items listed in #2 above. Schools also have a special obligation as educational institutions to practice the environmental ethics they teach and enable students to recycle at school just as they do at home.

Why do different towns collect different items in their recycling programs?
In Connecticut, most of our recyclables are sent to one of six intermediate processing centers where they are prepared for marketing to businesses that will transform them into new products. Some of these centers accept non-mandated items because they have found a suitable market. For example, the Hartford recycling center accepts magazines and catalogues along with newsprint because the newspaper mill that they ship to uses this mix to produce new newsprint. Some of the other centers have contracts with older mills that are only designed to use pure newsprint to produce their product.

What happens to my trash?
Most of Connecticut’s residentially-generated trash is sent to one of six Connecticut resource recovery facilities. These plants burn the trash as a fuel to generate electricity. The resulting ash is buried in specially designed lined landfills. All of these plants have modern pollution controls to reduce air emissions produced from the combustion process.

Why aren’t all plastics recyclable, after all, they are all stamped with the chasing arrows symbol?
The plastic container code identifies the seven thermoplastic resins by a number & an abbreviation. The code does not denote recyclability; it merely identifies each resin by its chemical composition. The plastic industry designed the code, hoping that all plastics would ultimately be recycled. However, although plastics #1PET and #2HDPE bottles are recycled in most parts of the U.S., there are fewer markets for the other resins. Unlike steel, aluminum and glass that always contain some recycled content, many plastics manufacturers have not designed their production facilities to incorporate recycled material.

Who do I call to get a recycling bin and find out what is recycled in my town?
Contact your town hall or local Department of Public Works. Many of them now have web sites.

Why aren’t sports drinks, bottled water, single-serve juices and teas covered under the bottle deposit law?
The "bottle bill" predates curbside recycling in Connecticut by about 10 years. When most bottle bills were passed in the late 70s and early 80s, many of these sports drinks and teas were not on the market. Carbonated beverages were targeted as they were often consumed away from home and presented a litter problem at parks, beaches and roadways. Giving the containers a monetary value made it more likely that someone would take this item back to the store for recycling. Although the legislature considers expanding the bottle bill almost every session, the proponents of the legislation have yet to be successful.

How much trash does a typical household generate?
In Connecticut we dispose of about 4 pounds of trash per resident, per day, and recycle the rest. That means that each of us is sending about ¾ ton of trash to be burned or buried each year.

I’m moving and I need to get rid of my household hazardous waste. What should I do?
Most communities in Connecticut offer at least one opportunity a year to their residents to dispose of hazardous items that they have in their home. These collections usually take place in the spring or fall. Some communities share the cost of providing a permanent site that offers weekly collection in the spring and fall to residents of participating towns. Because the material is hazardous, a licensed contractor must be hired to collect and dispose of this material properly. This is expensive, so municipalities cannot provide unlimited opportunities for collection. Call your town hall, or check its web site to find out the next available opportunity to properly dispose of this material in your area. Don’t wait until a few days before you move as there may not be service available at that time.

Why can’t I throw grass clippings in the trash?
The best thing to do with grass clippings is to leave them on the lawn. Grass clippings are mostly water and can provide needed moisture to your lawn. Other options are composting clippings along with other organics such as leaves or using them as garden mulch to keep down weeds. Because grass clippings are heavy and wet, they are expensive to collect and are unsuitable for disposal at a resource recovery facility because they compromise the combustion process. Some towns are allowed to compost grass with leaves, but collecting and managing grass this way is very expensive for your town.

What do I do with plastic bags?
Plastic bags should never be put in curbside recycling bins because they can jam equipment at the Intermediate Processing Centers that prepare recyclables to be marketed.  However, a number of grocery store chains in Connecticut do have collection bins for plastic bags at their stores.  Most of these bags are sent to the manufacturer of a recycled composite lumber that is used for outdoor decking.  Contact your local store to see if they collect bags, or, if they do not, ask them to start a program.  Better yet, bring reusable cloth bags with you when you go shopping.

What should I do if I see my trash hauler mixing trash and recyclables?
Unless your hauler has a split truck (most do not) your trash and recyclables should be picked up separately. If you see someone mixing trash and recyclables, call your town hall and ask to speak to your local recycling coordinator or call CT DEP at (860) 424-3365 and file a complaint.

Why does recycling cost money?
Recyclables must be collected and then processed and shipped to companies that can use them as raw materials to make new products. Each step of the process has an associated cost. Revenues for recycled materials, which fluctuate like the price of any other raw material, do not always cover the processing costs. Landfilling and resource recovery also have associated costs, which are often higher than the cost to recycle. These other methods of managing our waste do not provide any of the environmental benefits that recycling provides. When we make new products from recycled material, we save energy, prevent pollution, reduce air emissions, save natural resources and reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. However you look at it, recycling is quite a bargain.

How can I help promote recycling?
Get involved in an America Recycles Day (ARD) event in your town. ARD takes place every year on November 15. For more information call (860) 424-3365 or visit the America Recycles Day website.