Bolivar, Ohio (WJER) - The Stark-Tusc-Wayne Recycling District is telling everyone what they can do to help out the district beyond Earth Day. Administrative Director Rachel Rothacher says they are asking people to help prevent recycling contamination when items end up in recycling bins that shouldn’t be there. She says that can range from food waste left inside containers to electronics.

“There are components to electronics that are recyclable, but you have to break it down. It has to be processed by someone other than just thrown into your curbside bin. So when they say contamination, that’s what they’re meaning,” she says. 

Rothacher says they also want to keep people from throwing things into recycling that they call tanglers, such as hoses or a strand of Christmas lights.      

“What happens is when you put in items that aren’t acceptable is they can jam up the machine,” she says. “In the example with the tanglers, those things can get tangled in the machine and then they have to stop it, get everything out, and it really slows down the sorting process.” 

Rothacher says people can check with their municipality or the solid waste district website to learn more about what items are acceptable in their curbside recycling programs.

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