Blue Bin Diving with Mitch Sidebar

By Katherine Pioli

Tagging bins
The tags are long yellow strips of paper listing sanitation programs, problems and rules and giving phone numbers for people seeking additional information. If there is a problem with your recycling and the contents cannot be picked up, a tag will be left stapled to the can and marked to indicate the exact problem. The user of the bin is then responsible to fix the problem indicated. Although there is no violation fee, the city holds the right to re-appropriate a blue bin after continued misuse.

“Yes, I recycle these all the time!”-items that can be recycled:
Newspaper and inserts, magazines, phonebooks, cereal boxes, shoe boxes, all plastics 1-7, plastic grocery bags, plastic coated milk and juice cartons, aluminum beverage containers, tin (steel) food cans

“I didn’t know you couldn’t recycle that”- items that can’t be recycled:

Glass, clothing, diapers, wood, yard waste (leaves, twigs, etc), electronics, bathroom waste (Q-tips, toilet paper), scrap metal, food
For a more complete list, go to: www.slcwaste.com.

Weekly waste collection programs:
There are more options than just using the standard 90-gallon trash and recycling bins. The city offers green garbage collection bins in 90, 60 and 30-gallon sizes with reduced service fees for each smaller size. In addition, a brown yard waste bin, with service offered March-November, is for weeds, leaves, lawn clippings, vegetables and fruits. The blue bin for recycling, along with pickup service, is included free of charge for anyone with weekly garbage service.

This article was originally published on January 30, 2009.