Single Stream Recycling Program for Austin Residents
Austin’s new single stream recycling program allows customers to mix recyclable paper, plastic and glass in one bin. In addition, residents will be able to recycle more and more types of items.
The program will unfold at the beginning of October 2008 and extend through the end of the year. Small blue bins will no longer be used and crews will deliver new blue, 90-gallon recycling carts to City of Austin Solid Waste Services residential customers. Recycling collection will occur every other week, as opposed to the current weekly schedule. Single Stream Recycling instructions and a calendar showing collection schedules will be delivered with the new recycling carts.
Items that can be recycled include: Paper: (newspaper, office paper, junk mail, cereal and soft drink boxes, corrugated cardboard) Aluminum and metal cans: food cans (labels left on OK), soda cans Glass: Jars and bottles Rigid plastics: # 1 through # 7, including yogurt and margarine tubs
Items that cannot be recycled: Plastic bags, Styrofoam (cups, egg cartons, take-out containers)
Questions on the new recycling program can be directed to Solid Waste Services at 974-1945.
Numbered triangle symbols on plastics
#1 – Polyethylene Terephthalate (PETE) or (PET): soft drink and water bottles, beer bottles, mouthwash bottles, peanut butter and salad dressing containers, ovenable film, and ovenable pre-prepared food trays. It can be recycled into polar fleece clothing, fiber, tote bags, bottles, clothing, furniture, and carpet.
#2 – High Density Polyethylene (HDPE): milk jugs, water and juice containers, liquid detergent bottles, yogurt and margarine tubs, and cereal box liners. It can be recycled into liquid laundry detergent containers, drainage pipe, oil bottles, recycling bins, benches, pens, doghouses, vitamin bottles, floor tile, picnic tables, lumber, mailbox posts, fencing.
#3 – Vinyl (Polyvinyl Chloride or PVC): clear food packaging, shampoo bottles, medical tubing, wire and cable insulation.
#4 – Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE): bread bags, squeezable bottles (e.g. honey, mustard).
#5 – Polypropylene (PP): ketchup bottles, yogurt containers and margarine tubs, medicine bottles.
#6 – Polystyrene (PS): compact disc jackets, aspirin bottles, cups, plates.
#7 – Other: Use of this code indicates that the package in question is made with a resin other than the six listed above, or is made of more than one resin used in combination. Plastics such as three and five gallon reusable water bottles, some citrus juice and ketchup bottles, clear baby food containers.