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Community Corner

America Recycles Day - Waste Management Reminds You to Recycle Often. Recycle Right.

Better Recycling Habits Benefit Everyone

WHEELING, IL – Nov. 15, 2013 – Illinois residents are recycling at home, at work and across the Village of Wheeling.  America Recycles Day is the only nationally recognized day dedicated to promoting and celebrating recycling in the U. S.

 “If we recycle one item every day, we can make a huge difference in the community,” said Village President, Dean Argiris. “I encourage our residents to take one step at a time in helping to make our community cleaner.”

Now, we have an opportunity to improve our recycling habits.

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“As North America’s largest residential recycler, we want to remind our customers to continue, and to improve upon, their good recycling practices,” said Lisa Disbrow, spokesperson for Waste Management of Illinois.  “It is important that people recycle often, recycle right and buy recycled materials.”

Too often many clean, recyclable items end up in the trash when they could easily be recycled by simply by placing them in the recycle bin. Many recycled items like aluminum cans, paper, glass and plastics can be recycled again and again.

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Curbside recycling programs take recyclables to a materials recovery center where local workers use advanced processing equipment to sort the items into containers of metal, plastic, wood and glass. The sorted materials are compressed into large rectangular bales and shipped to processing plants where most are made into new products. This sets the recycling process in motion all over again, while helping conserve valuable natural resources.

“We’d like to encourage our customers to recycle everything they can; fill the cart every week, if possible,” Disbrow added.  “Recycling often and recycling right are the easiest things we can do 365 days a year to save energy, conserve natural resources, and create green jobs.”

While recycling as much as possible is important, it’s also critical for residents to keep items that cannot be recycled out of recycling containers. This helps ensure these items can be turned into something new, thereby renewing the lifecycle of that product. Cleaner recyclables mean less cost to process and higher value to those who purchase the recycled material.

Village of Wheeling’s program accepts the following items:

• Glass bottles, jars and containers (without the lids)

• Newspaper, paper bags, catalogs, chipboard (cereal, cracker, shoe boxes) computer paper, construction paper, egg cartons, envelopes, junk mail, magazines, telephone books, and white and colored paper

• Plastic bottles, jugs and jars with the 1 and 2 recycling designation

• Corrugated cardboard (flattened).

 

Non-acceptable items in this area include:

• Non-container plastic such as plastic bags, plastic wrap, hoses, toys, plastic plates, cups and straws

• Moisture or food contaminated papers such as paper plates, pizza boxes, cups, napkins, towels or tissues

• Mirrors, light bulbs, drinking glasses, window glass and ceramics

• Polystyrene cups, food trays and packing materials

• Needles or medical waste.

For more information on recycling in the Village of Wheeling, visit www.wm.com

Recycling often and recycling right are all part of being a good environmental steward.  One final step makes the entire process work: buying recycled materials.

“The next time you shop, consider purchasing recycled materials and ask the store manager to stock more products that are made from recycled content,” said Disbrow.

As North America’s largest recycler of post-consumer waste, Waste Management handled 14 millions tons of recovered materials in 2012 and by 2020 it plans to process more than 20 million tons. 

 

About Waste Management

Waste Management, based in Houston, Texas, is the leading provider of comprehensive waste management services in North America. Our subsidiaries provide collection, transfer, recycling and resource recovery, and disposal services. We are also a leading developer, operator and owner of waste-to-energy and landfill gas-to-energy facilities in the United States. Our customers include residential, commercial, industrial, and municipal customers throughout North America. To learn more visit www.wm.com or www.thinkgreen.com.

 

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