County Recycling Officials Urge ‘When in Doubt, Throw it Out’

The Medford Sun

Burlington County authorities are reaching out to educate the public on recycling. The issue is not participation- which is around 96% - but that the public is often recycling incorrectly. Too often the public is failing to separate recyclable and disposable material which contaminates the recycling stream.

The problem is made worse by a recent policy decision in China, a major recycling destination, to restrict incoming shipments to .5 percent contamination. For a county recycling program that handles 350,000 pounds of material per day that adds a lot of time and cost to ensure a clean stream.

“This is a standard that no scrap industry anywhere has ever done this before at all,” said Wayne DeFeo, principal and founder of DeFeo Associates, an environmental consulting firm utilized by Burlington County.

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