Solid Waste & Recycling E-News September 2022

• Did You Know?
• Solid Waste Master Plan – Public Engagement
• What's in the Cart?
• Recycling Star Yard Signs
• A Closer Look at Clamshells

Glassware cannot be recycled in your curbside recycling cart or through Orange County’s separate Glass on the Side (GOTS) recycling program. Household glassware is made of different materials than bottles and jars used for food storage and packaging. The only glass items that can be recycled in curbside carts or through GOTS are glass bottles and jars.

Unwanted, reusable glassware can be donated to a local thrift store. Orange County Salvage Sheds do not accept glassware because it is easily breakable. Discard broken glass in the trash. 

Solid Waste Master Plan – Public Engagement

What's in the Cart?

A monthly review of the most common and obscure findings in recycling carts.

As part of the Recycling Stars Program, solid waste staff evaluate curbside recycling carts to educate residents on proper recycling. To further educate residents, here are some of the most frequent and some unexpected contaminants that inspectors have found:

• Plastic bags, film, and wrap. These do not belong in recycling carts! Please throw them away or take them to a plastic bag and film drop-off site.

• Receipts. Although they look and feel like paper, they are not recyclable. Throw them away, get them emailed or texted, or ask for no receipt.

• Toilet seats are not recyclable!

• Paper towels, napkin, and tissues will fall apart in your cart! They must be composted or disposed of in the trash.

• Food waste. Banana peels, watermelon rinds, french fries, and hamburgers do not belong in your recycling cart. Peanut butter residue and jars containing food do not either. Please dispose of food properly; clean out food containers before recycling them. 

A Closer Look at Clamshells 

In recent months, Orange County Solid Waste informed residents and establishments that #1 PET plastic clamshells are no longer recyclable in Orange County. Many are confused by this change, especially because for a very short time this material was accepted.

Previously, Orange County sent it’s recycling to a material processing facility (MRF) that started accepting clamshells around 2019. In 2021, following a competitive bidding process, a contract with a different recycling processor was implemented. The County’s current processor does not accept plastic clamshells. The reason the current processor does not accept clamshells is because they are more difficult to recycle into new materials, and there is no market for the material.

When #1 PET clamshells, lids, trays, and tubs (e.g. fruit containers, lettuce tubs) are manufactured, the plastic is molded using a process called thermoforming. Contrarily, bottles, jars, and jugs are made through blow molding. Thermoforming uses heat and pressure or vacuum forming to mold thin sheets of plastic into the desired shape. Blow molding heats the plastic and pumps air to conform the plastic into the shape of the mold.

Just as these materials are manufactured differently, they are recycled differently, too. Thermoform plastics often have strong adhesive labels that are difficult to separate from the plastic itself, unlike water bottles that have a plastic sleeve. When thermoform plastics are broken down, the pellets have a different bulk density and are much smaller than PET bottle pellets. Therefore, thermoform pellets cannot be mixed with other PET materials because they melt at a different temperature and move through material handling systems at a different rate. Sorting machinery at MRFs is not equipped to sort bottles from clamshells, so, when included, they are unintentionally baled together. Plastic bottle bales with clamshells are seen as contaminated, decreasing their resale value, and decreasing the value of recycling material.

Due to the obstacles of recycling thermoform plastics, aka clamshells, the best disposal method is to throw them away, or reuse them as storage containers.

Please note, it is not advisable to rely on information about what other communities say can be recycled. Some surrounding counties, including Durham, send their materials to a different recycling processor, resulting in their communities having different acceptable materials; this is why recycling guidelines can vary from one town to the next.

Follow Us On Social Media!

Follow our social media pages for important updates on waste and recycling programs in the County, upcoming events & webinars, answers to FAQ’s, facilities schedule changes (due to holidays or inclement weather) and other important recycling news you can use!

@ocncsolidwaste on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook

Can't Get Enough Trash Talk?

Listen to OC Solid Waste Representatives the second Tuesday of each month from 8:15 am to 8:45 am on the ‘3-D News’ on local radio WHUP 104.7 FM, over the air and streaming online. Visit this link to listen online. If you missed the show, you can listen online since shows are archived for a month after airing.