The Do’s and Don’ts of Recycling Plastic this Halloween

Halloween is just a week away and soon your house will be flooded with plastics of all kinds. Grocery bags from shopping for Halloween candy, the Halloween candy wrappers, plastic bags that your children’s costumes came in, your trash bags from cleaning up pumpkin guts, those plastic Jack-o’-lanterns that you go trick-or-treating with, decorations, the list can go on and on.

To make it simple – these plastics are not recyclable. Do not toss the candy wrappers in the recycling bin after eating that delicious chocolate. Do not put plastic bags of any kind in the recycling bin, too. That would not be a fun trick or treat for the recycling machine to get tangled up in.

However, there are types of plastic you can recycle. You can recycle #7 portable plastic beverage bottles (meaning your reusable water bottles). You can also recycle #5 plastic tubs like yogurt, butter, and sour cream containers. Finally, you can also recycle #1 plastic bottles, jugs, and containers like clamshell to-go containers, water and soda bottles, salad dressing and oil bottles, plastic peanut butter jars, dishwasher and laundry detergent jugs, and more.

A good rule to follow before tossing any plastic containers into the recycling cart is to double check and make sure it is labeled with one of those numbers on the bottom of the container. From all of us at Regional Recycling, we hope you have a spooky and safe Halloween season.