R.I. Resource Recovery Corp. launches campaign to raise recycling awareness

THE SECOND PHASE OF A CAMPAIGN by the R.I. Resource Recovery Corp. to educate residents on how to recycle better and eliminate contamination in their recycling launched this week.
THE SECOND PHASE OF A CAMPAIGN by the R.I. Resource Recovery Corp. to educate residents on how to recycle better and eliminate contamination in their recycling launched this week.

JOHNSTON – The R.I. Resource Recovery Corp. will launch the second phase of its anti-contamination campaign this week to teach residents how to recycle smarter.
The campaign is aimed at the summer vacation and cookout season, a time of year when RIRRC experiences higher contamination levels in recycling loads, according to a press release.
“We are targeting the summer months because we see higher contamination during this time each year,” Sarah Kite-Reeves, director of recycling services for RIRRC, said in a statement. “When kids are out of school, people are cooking out more and cleaning their homes and garages of old items, this leads to more contaminated recycling and more threats to our workers. By raising awareness of this problem, and educating people on better recycling habits, it means our workers are safer and people save money – it’s a win-win for everyone.”
Common contaminants include, discarded food scraps, yard waste, remodeling waste, hazardous waste like propane tanks, and dangerous materials such as garden hoses, used hypodermic needles and dirty diapers. These items, which are escalated in the summertime, pose dangers to both RIRRC’s line workers and its sorting equipment at the Materials Recycling Facility.
Recently, a small propane tank caused a fire to break out in the facility. After the fire, workers pulled an additional 23 camping-size tanks off the recycling line in one day. Another worker was injured recently while cutting away improperly recycled items such as plastic bags, wires, cables and rope from the facility’s spinning screens.
When recycling loads are highly contaminated, the cost to the city or town can rise from zero to $250, plus $32 per ton to landfill it. With budgets growing tighter, money earned from recycling versus spent on landfilling can have an effect on an individual’s or a families’ tax bill. Since municipalities receive a share of any profits earned from the sale of its recyclables, contamination jeopardizes these profits, the RIRRC said.
The RIRRC also has announced some new items that it will accept in recycling bins and carts: plastic containers up to five gallons in size (up from the previous two-gallon limit) and pizza boxes with a little grease.
RIRRC also has added a new drop-off program for foam, where residents can place clean, dry foam in clear bags, and drop it off for recycling as long as food service foam containers are bagged separately from other rigid packaging foam. Foam packing “peanuts” and spongy foam, like a “#1 Fan” finger, are not accepted, and no foam should be recycled at home.
Recycling information can be found on the RIRRC website, www.recycletogetherri.org and how-to videos explaining the recycling “rules of thumb,” exceptions to those rules and tips on preparing recycling correctly can be found on RIRRC’s YouTube channel at www.youtube.com/rirrc.

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