Recycle Today for a Better Tomorrow

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Keep Euclid Beautiful often gets questions about recycling.  The Do's and Dont's are different in each state and sometimes vary from city to city.  This can make recycling a bit confusing.  In this column, Keep Euclid Beautiful will do our best to answer your recycling questions based on the guidelines for the City of Euclid and the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District.

Dear Keep Euclid Beautiful:  Can I put all my paper & cardboard in my curbside recycling?

Mixed paper should be placed loose in a curbside recycling cart or bin.  If you must use bags to hold your recycling, use paper bags, do not use plastic bags.  Flatten cardboard.  When setting mixed paper and boxes at the curb for recycling, make sure they are clean, empty and dry.

INCLUDE THESE ITEMS FOR CURBSIDE RECYCLING:

-Newspapers & inserts
-Magazines & catalogs
-Junk mail and envelopes (window envelopes are okay)
-Postcards, greeting cards, coupon packets
-Phone books
-Paper grocery bags
-Cereal & dry food boxes, shoes boxes, toothpaste or over the counter medicine boxes
-Paper tubes, tissue boxes,
-Office paper, stationary, business cards (any color)
-Hard (cover removed) or soft cover books
-Wrapping paper (including the cardboard tube)
-Cardboard (flattened)
-Paper shopping bags
-Clean pizza boxes (free of excess food and grease)
-Paper egg cartons

DO NOT INCLUDE IN CURBSIDE RECYCLING:

-Paper cups (have a thin layer of plastic coating on them)

-Frozen food boxes (have a thin layer of plastic coating on them)

-Napkins, tissues & paper towels

-Wet or soiled paper & boxes

-Food or candy wrappers

-Photographs

-Shredded paper

Dear Keep Euclid Beautiful:  Why can I not put shredded paper in my curbside recycling?

Shredded paper is too small to be sorted at the Materials Recovery Facility that recieves your recyclables.  Instead you can dispose of it in bags in your regular trash.  If you wish to recycle your shredded paper, please place it in paper bags and drop it off at a Paper Retriever.  These are large green and yellow public recycling conatiners usually loccated in the parkings lots of schools, places of worship, the animal shelter and community centers.

FYI:  The City of Euclid provides free shredding for Euclid residents 3 times a year.  The 3rd and final time this year is Saturday, October 27th from 9am to 12pm at the City Service Garage, Lakeland Blvd.

Remember, When in doubt, leave it out.

Please forward your recycling questions to Keepeuclidbeautiful@cityofeuclid.com . We will do our best to answer your questions.  Some questions may be featured in our next column.