1. Who should recycle?

Residents

All Burlington County residents, including residents of apartments and condominiums, are required to recycle cardboard, paper, food and beverage cans, glass bottles and jars, and plastic bottles # 1 and # 2 type only.

Apartment Landlords/Condominium Associations
Apartment Landlords and Condominium Complex Associations are required by municipal ordinance, to provide recycling containers in convenient areas for their residents. Recycling areas and containers must be clearly labeled and residents routinely advised of recycling requirements. The County Recycling Office does provide recycling literature to those Complexes that are serviced by the Occupational Training Center, via the Burlington County Regional Recycling Program. If a Complex contracts privately for recycling services, their recycling service company should provide them guidance on what materials are accepted and how they should be prepared for recycling.

Businesses
All owners, lessees, or occupants of public and private businesses, commercial and/or industrial establishments are required by local municipal ordinance to recycle paper, corrugated cardboard, bottles and cans. Businesses are required to contract privately for recycling services.

Institutions
Owners, lessees, and occupants of all municipal and state government facilities, all religious, education, and health care facilities, all public and/or private civic organizations, and all non-profit and/or profit organizations are required by local municipal law to recycle corrugated cardboard, paper, and bottles and cans. Institutions are required to contract privately for recycling services.

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2. Why should I recycle?

• Recycling is the law, enforced through the local municipal ordinances.

• Recycling saves money. When municipalities send less to the landfill, they spend less of your tax dollars on disposal fees.

• Recycling reduces trash. It will extend the life of the landfill.

• Recycling conserves natural and nonrenewable resources.

• Recycling saves energy. Making products from recycled materials use less energy than from raw materials.

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3. Why can't I recycle frozen food containers?

We can recycle 2 types of paper cartons:

• Shelf stable cartons such as broth and juice boxes

• Refrigerated cartons such as milk and orange juice cartons

These are coated with a single layer of polyethylene

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The main reason we can’t accept frozen food containers in our program is they are have more types of plastic coatings than the shelf stable and refrigerated cartons. Cartons are coated with a layer of Polyethylene. Frozen food containers can have various types of coatings and because of the variation they can cause problems when trying to separate the fiber (paper) layer from the coating layers. Paper mills can’t separate out these embedded plastic layers from the paper fiber, resulting in problems when they try to pulp the fiber into new paper.

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4. I want to recycle, but do I have to spend time removing all those staples?

No, staples do not have to be removed from papers before recycling. Just remove large metal clips and binders.

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5. I've heard I can no longer put my shredded paper curbside to be recycled. What can I do with it?

New Shredded Paper Guidelines

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6. Does it help to flatten my aluminum cans?

No. Our processing system works best with whole aluminum cans. Cans crushed completely flat may not get sorted properly and get mixed with the wrong recyclables.

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7. Should I separate all my magazines, newspaper, junk mail, and cereal boxes into separate paper bags for recycling?

There is no need to separate. All paper types and cardboard are collected by the same truck.

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8. Can I recycle wrapping paper from holidays and special occasions?

Yes, wrapping paper and tissue paper used for packing or wrapping gifts can be recycled with your regular mixed paper recycling. No foil or plastic wrapping paper, and remove ribbon and bows.