“I recently learned that all of my building’s recycling was being discarded as trash by the pickup company because it was collected loose but in bins lined with black plastic bags.”

Photo by PoPville flickr user Kate Conradt

“Dear PoPville,

DC now requires all recycling to be loose and all recycling in plastic bags is thrown out. Private companies pick up the recycling from apartment buildings, but they still have to follow DC regulations. If you live in an apartment building and your recyclables go into a large container (“dumpster”), it’s most likely they still need to be loose. Some companies allow clear bags (but not grocery bags) for large quantities of recycling. Black bags are always considered trash, regardless of which bin they are in.

So, if one of your readers see liners in your recycling bins in the hallways or bagged recycling in your dumpsters, he or she will need to speak to the building management team and ask that they contact the recycling pickup company they use and ask if the recycling needs to be loose or in clear bags (those are the only two possibilities). Then, they have to adjust if/which bin liners are used, based on what they find out.

Please share this around!”