Get Ready to Recycle Big Time Oct. 4 on Orcas

Press release by Helen Venada,
County Waste Reduction and Hazardous Waste Coordinator

We hope you’re rounding up and preparing your nursery pots and other “agricultural plastics” for the big fall recycling jamboree!  To make sure they are acceptable for recycling markets, please keep your items dry and shake off loose soil, hay, or fibers.

Orcas Island – Monday, October 4^th, 11:30am-3:30pm, County Solid Waste Facility

Lopez Island – Thursday, October 7th, 11:00am-3:00pm, County Solid Waste Facility

San Juan Island – Saturday, October 9th, 9am-1pm, SJC Fairgrounds (same time as the Flea Market and Swap Meet)

These collections will offer FREE recycling of  plastic nursery pots and flats, plant labels, baling twine (bagged), soil amendment bags (folded inside out), drip irrigation tape, tarps, mulch film, tunnel film, silage bags and hay bale stretch wrap, plastic buckets/lids, PVC pipe, strapping, Reemay row cover, and bird/deer netting (bagged).  Nursery pots and flats will be made available for re-use at each event.

It is estimated that plastics can take up to 400 years to break down in landfills; farmers and gardeners from the San Juan Islands have diverted about 51 tons of ag plastics from landfill from our last three years’ recycling collections.

Burning plastics is not a disposal option!  It is illegal and creates highly toxic fumes that are especially harmful to people with asthma, allergies, or other respiratory or cardiac problems.

For more specifics on how to prepare your ag plastics for recycling and on the health risks of improper disposal of plastics, please refer to the websites of the sponsoring organizations or call 370-0503.

THANK YOU FOR RECYCLING!   It’s a great way to help “Keep It Green.”