Are YOU recycling right? A campaign in Akron will let you know

It's a question a lot of us might ask ourselves: can this pizza box go in my recycling bin? The City of Akron is returning a campaign to make sure folks are recycling correctly.

The city partners with Keep Akron Beautiful for the "Recycle Right" campaign. It's a communitywide initiative to improve the quality of recycling in curbside carts by providing residents personalized and real-time curbside recycling education and feedback.

Teams with Keep Akron Beautiful will be checking inside recycling carts but not rifling through them. If the team sees something that shouldn't be in the cart, it will issue an "oops" tag.

"It's not a ticket, it's not to catch someone doing the wrong thing, it's really just an education campaign," said Jacqui Ricchiuti with Keep Akron Beautiful.

You could get an "oops" tag on your recycling cart from now until August 10. If you get one, your recycling won't be picked up that week. The tag will let you know what to remove from your cart for the following week.

Remember these things CAN NOT go in your recycling bin:

• Bagged recyclables
• Garbage
• Plastic wrap
• Plastic film
• Plastic bags
• Food or liquid
• Clothing
• Yard waste, or bulky items

"We love clean plastic bottles that are dry with nothing inside, and we love pizza boxes from frozen pizza that are just cardboard, but a frozen pizza that you would get like a local pizza shop, that kind of box can't go inside the recycling cart," said Ricchiuti.
The program is an education campaign for families, but it has made a big economic impact in the past.

In 2019, the City of Akron said the recycling contamination rate was 39.3%.

That high rate cost the city $205,031 in contamination costs. After several "Recycle Right" campaigns the city reports the contamination rate dropped to 22.3%.

The city's goal for this year's campaign, get the contamination rate under 20%.

To help take any guesswork out of what can or cannot be recycled, the City of Akron offers the free Akron Recycles app . The app allows residents to search for any item and find out if it belongs in the trash bin, the recycling bin, or on the curb as a bulk item.

The app also provides customized alerts and reminders regarding curbside pickup. It is available to download for free on Apple or Android devices.

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