Effective Saturday, June 15, 2019, Howard County’s Department of Public Works’ Bureau of Environmental Services will no longer accept curbside recycling placed out in plastic bags. Items placed out for recycling, should be placed loose in the county assigned recycling bin/cart. Any plastic bagged recyclables will not be collected curbside.
County residents will be receiving a postcard in the mail alerting them of this change.
Plastic bags and plastic film foul machinery, getting wrapped around recycling equipment and jamming the screens. Small plastic fragments also become air- and water-borne litter. Due to these factors, our contracted processor is no longer accepting recycling in plastic bags. The regional marketplace has contributed to this change.
In addition, the Alpha Ridge Landfill Residents' Convenience Center will no longer accept items for recycling bagged in plastic. If you choose to transport your items in a plastic bag, please empty your items into the recycling compactor and take the bag with you.
County residents who wish to recycle their clean plastic bags and film may do so at participating local grocery stores, big box stores and other retailers who have collection bins set up, normally inside the store’s front entrance.
Pat Hersey, a co-founder of Less Plastic Please, has been educating us about the problems with single-use plastics and has answered the following questions. If you have any questions pertaining to plastics please send them to susan_hogan@hcpss.org. Responses to your questions will be posted as received at: FIND YOUR ANSWERS HERE!