Know where your recycling goes? That may change

Do you recycle?

If you do, it might not matter any more, come January. A proposed ban by China on recycling imports could mean your recyclables just end up in the dump.

For example, did you know paper or plastic plates can’t go in the bin? Neither can Styrofoam.

But they often make their way from your bin to recycling centers across Oregon. Then it’s sorted through once again and put on a ship, bound for China.

But now, China says our recyclables have too much trash in them, and the country has proposed a ban on U.S. waste products.

That means all the recycling companies in Oregon are scrambling to figure out what they’ll do, including Bend Garbage and Recycling.

“If China cut off importing the amount of material that they’re importing, there’s no domestic capacity for that,” Brad Bailey, president of the company, said Tuesday. “There would need to be an option for that material to go somewhere, and the landfill would be the least option.”

Officials are asking consumers to stop so-called “wishful recycling” — throwing something in the recycle bin, hoping it will get recycled.

But there’s still lots of confusion about the rules.

“I guess I thought glass bottles and jars were recyclable,” said Thomas Hermann of Bend. “I did know about the clamshells, but some of the glass, like the wine bottles and things like that, surprised me.”

So far, 14 companies in Oregon already have applied for permits to throw their recyclable materials into the landfill.

For more information on what you can and can’t recycle, you can get a guide here: https://bendgarbage.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/BGR-Recycling-Guide.pdf

This topic is also the focus of Tuesday’s KTVZ.COM Poll: Do you find recycling rules too complicated? Find the poll halfway down the right side of our home page.