With the traditional Thanksgiving meal comes pots and pans, a myriad of empty containers, and dishes crowding countertops. As the cleanup ensues, it is important to ”Know Before You Throw” and recognize what can go in your home recycling bin and what cannot.
Tips for Recycling on Thanksgiving:
- Know before you throw. Start by checking your municipality’s recycling rules or those provided by your recycling hauler.
- Glassware and ceramic dishes should not go into your home recycling bin. Drinking glasses, dinnerware, and baking dishes, whether whole or in pieces, should not be put in your home recycling bin. However, glass items like empty food jars are usually acceptable to put in your home recycling bin.
- Recycle metal cans and plastic bottles. You might also have steel cans from cranberry sauce or jugs and bottles of juice and milk. Empty metal cans and empty plastic bottles and jugs can also typically go in your home recycling bin.
- Leave the liquids behind. Show your thanks for recycling and recycling workers by making sure food scraps and liquids are not disposed of in your recycling bin.
- And the soiled pie pans too. Soiled disposable foil bakeware and pans, such as those used for pies, casseroles, and breads, should not go in your recycling bin.
Source NYS DEC
Monroe County’s year-round Ecopark facility is located at 10 Avion Drive near the airport. Ecopark is a joint effort between Monroe County and Waste Management that provides county residents with a “one-stop drop-off” to dispose of or recycle many items including hard Styrofoam packing material (not foam trays used for meat or produce), TVs/electronics (fee-based), cooking oil/grease, fluorescent lights, clothing, sharps and syringes, and more. Ecopark also offers many special collection days for household hazardous waste and pharmaceutical and medication disposal. For current information on recycling opportunities, operating hours, schedules, and fee-based items go to www.monroecounty.gov/ecopark.
To dispose of televisions and electronics contact retailers that sell those products. Do not leave on the curb, New York State law prohibits trash haulers from collecting electronic waste.