(Photo via Unsplash).
With the holiday season underway, the head of the Cortland County recycling center came by Tuesday’s Common Council meeting to talk about the recycling center and what materials can and cannot be recycled.
Chris Spadolini, who’s been the county’s recycling coordinator for the past couple of years, said December is the “most challenging month” for the recycling center with holiday purchasing and packaging.
“It’s out of control,” Spadolini said, noting the influx of unnecessary recycling between Christmas and New Years. “We will see a tremendous amount of contamination.”
Chris Spadolini, the Cortland County recycling coordinator, spoke at the Common Council meeting on Tuesday. (Photo via Kevin L. Smith of The Cortland Voice).
Spadolini noted that a good portion of the packaging materials – including styrofoam packaging, bubble foam, bubble wrap and other related materials – are not recyclable. Other materials not accepted included gift bags, wrapping paper and any materials that are “highly glossy,” Spadolini added.
Tissue paper, however, is recyclable, Spadolini said.
According to Spadolini, styrofoam was supposed to be banned as packaging material in New York State as of Jan. 1 of this year, but the recycling center is “still seeing mountains of it.”
Spadolini noted that county residents should keep an eye out for the chasing arrows symbols when recycling plastics.
“Only things that should be recycled and brought to our facility are items that contain the (chasing arrow) symbols,” Spadolini said, noting it’s 1s, 2s or throw it out. “We can only economically recycle 1s and 2s plastics (with the chasing arrow symbol).”
One of the most common comments that Spadolini gets is “I don’t know why we’re doing this (process of recycling). It goes to the landfill anyways.”
“It is just not true,” Spadolini added. “In 1,000-pound bales, we bale cardboard, tin and plastic and we put it out to market. There are processors that bid on this and buy it from us.”
Spadolini mentioned that anything the center doesn’t process is sent down to a processor in Apalachin and put out to the market.
For glass, Spadolini said having the top off is the “preferred way,” but it’s acceptable to have the top on due to its use. Glass is accepted at the recycling center, but not for pickup in the large recycling totes at residences in the city of Cortland, mayor Scott Steve said.
“Do not put glass in those recycling totes,” Steve said. “We’ve seen quite a bit of contamination with that.”
For further information on the recycling process in Cortland County, go to the Cortland County Recycling Center Facebook page or contact the recycling center at 607-753-5191. Information is also available by clicking here.
