Pictured above is the American Recycling Center’s tipping floor. This is where collection trucks drop off all curbside recycling, everything is deposited into large piles on the concrete floor. From here they are enter the drum feeder and are put on a conveyor belt that takes it up to the sorting equipment. The amount of non-recyclable items that enter the facility is astonishing.
The biggest contributor to that category is grocery bags. Unfortunately plastic bags cannot be curbside recycled in Prince William County. Thus we provide a collection bin at the office where people can drop of their grocery bags and other plastic films. Earlier this month we partnered with Prince William County Risk Management to be an official site for their community plastic bag collection effort. Our first collection weighed in at 20.3 pounds of plastic bags. Every month the overall community progress will be posted at the Chinn Recreation Center. Putting plastic bags in your recycling bin at home causes clogging in the vents at the recycling facilities which causes them to have to shut down in order to unclog them, thereby slowing down productivity. We have been working with the Prince William Solid Waste Division to educate community members on what can and cannot be recycled from home. If you have any plastic bags at home feel free to drop them off at our collection site in our office! Otherwise, most grocery stores also have collection bins right by the entrance.
Don’t forget Prince William Recycles Day is coming up! This year it will be held on October 17th from 10am-2pm at the Prince William County Landfill in Manassas. There will be free landfill tours, food, and lots of entertainment and activities for the family. There will also be lots of valuable information available about county regulations and organizations. Stop by the KPWB booth to visit us, we hope to see you there!
