Waukesha County Residents Urged to 'Recycle Right' in Curbside Bins to Reduce Contamination

In an effort to increase recycling rates and reduce contamination, Waukesha County officials are encouraging residents to “Recycle Right” by refreshing their recycling knowledge and ensure only acceptable, loose recyclables are put in curbside containers.

“Keeping non-recyclable garbage and dangerous items out of curbside recycling containers increases the efficiency in our recycling facility,” said Analiese Smith, Recycling and Solid Waste Supervisor for Waukesha County. “Contamination is simply not safe for our facility workers and costs taxpayers money by increasing equipment repairs and landfill disposal costs.”

Residents can review the ‘dos’ and ‘don’ts’ of recycling at home with the County’s online Curbside Recycling Guide in English or Spanish at www.waukeshacounty.gov/curbsiderecycling. The up-to-date information will help residents get the right items in their curbside bins and eliminate unacceptable items, such as plastic bags and bagged recyclables, scrap metal and propane tanks. The facility hopes that re-education of recycling standards will have positive impacts for municipalities and improve the economic and environmental sustainability of the recycling program.

For more information about recycling or the Joint Materials Recovery Facility (MRF), visit www.waukeshacounty.gov/recycling, call 262-896-8300 or follow us on Twitter or Facebook.

About the MRF

The joint City of Milwaukee and Waukesha County recycling program and MRF operations are built on intergovernmental cooperation and public-private partnerships. The MRF sorts and processes recyclables from approximately 300,000 households, from Waukesha County’s participating communities and the City of Milwaukee. The MRF processes 35 tons of recyclables per hour, or more than 70,000 tons of recyclables per year.