Once upon a time, you may have been asked to package up your recyclables in Plastic Bags and leave them by the curb. Then perhaps you were asked to put all recyclables into one big bin, and leave out all plastic bags. What changed? Why can’t you recycle plastic bags in your curbside bin?

The Ever-Changing Rules of Recycling

Most community recycling programs used to require you to separate your recyclables into paper, plastic and cans. At that time, it made sense to keep those items separate in plastic bags (or paper bags for the paper products). Then when the recyclables reached the recycling facility, the bags were broken open and the plastics and cans sorted out.

But over the last 20 years, most communities switched to commingled, or single stream recycling, which means that all recyclables are thrown into the same bin. The advantages of this are that single-stream recycling increases overall recycling rates, it’s easier to collect and haul, and it’s easier on you, the consumer. The big drawback is that it’s more difficult on the other end to cleanly and properly separate all those different types of recyclables and keep people from throwing in contaminant items that don’t belong.

Plastic Bags and Film Gum Up the Works

The way most recycling facilities work these days is to use a system of disc screens that separate and sort paper from plastic, glass from metal and so on. Items like plastic bags, gift wrapping ribbons, plastic wrap and the like are tanglers. Periodically throughout the day, the entire system has to be shut down to cut plastic bags and other tanglers out of the screens, which takes a huge toll on productivity and costs.

Take a look at this video by Block Club Chicago to get a glimpse of what plastic bags do to the sorting screens.

So please, leave those plastic bags out of your recycling bin! There are many places where you can drop off plastic bags for recycling though. Check out How to Properly Recycle Plastic Bags and Plastic Film.

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