Leer en espa\u00f1ol<\/a><\/p>\nAnd Broward County is right behind with similar stats. <\/p>\n
So now, more than ever, it\u2019s so important that all of us not only recycle, but recycle correctly. <\/p>\n
\u201cSixty percent of the people want to recycle, but they\u2019re confused and they don\u2019t know how, and they are making mistakes,\u201d said Dawn McCormick, of Waste Management Inc. of Florida.<\/p>\n
And because most of us are doing it wrong, more and more cities can\u2019t afford to do it any more.<\/p>\n
One of the biggest mistakes people make is putting their recycling in plastic bags. That\u2019s a big no, no. Under no circumstances are plastic bags ever recyclable.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a huge problem. It adds costs, it damages machinery,\u201d McCormick explained. <\/p>\n
The bags get tangled in the machines and make a big mess. Instead, dump your recyclables loose in your bin.<\/p>\n
That also means no plastic grocery bags, no plastic shopping bags and no plastic dry cleaning covers. It doesn\u2019t matter what they say: they are not recyclable.<\/p>\n
Less than 9% of plastics are ever recycled and just because you throw it in the bin, doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s getting recycled.<\/p>\n
This is called \u201cwish cycling.\u201d It clogs the machinery and brings the entire process to a grinding halt.<\/p>\n
Workers then have to remove all those contaminates by hand and haul them away, and guess who pays for that?<\/p>\n
\u201cIn many of our contracts, we charge as much as $55 a ton extra just to handle that garbage,\u201d McCormick said. <\/p>\n
Solo cups, plastic cups and plastic utensils are also not recyclable. These are single use plastics, meaning you use them once and then throw them away.<\/p>\n
But there is no away. They end up in landfills or worse, in our waterways, oceans and beaches where it can take plastics up to 500 years to biodegrade.<\/p>\n
So what can be recycled? The most in-demand plastic the market wants is the No. 1 PETE — that\u2019s the kind of plastic found in water and soda bottles, oils, dressings and peanut butter jars — just make sure you rinse it out!<\/p>\n
\u201cYou don\u2019t want food residue in any of the material,\u201d McCormick said. <\/p>\n
Next is the No. 2 HDPE, or high-density polyethylene. That\u2019s the kind of plastic used in milk jugs, detergent and household cleaning containers.<\/p>\n
Lastly, there\u2019s the No. 5 plastic, polypropylene. It\u2019s what most dairy tubs are made of. <\/p>\n
The problem is only 3% of these are actually bought by the market, so the rest end up in landfills. That means if plastic isn\u2019t a number 1 or number 2, chances are it\u2019s not getting recycled.<\/p>\n
What is always recyclable? Cans! But incredibly, most people just throw them away.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re only recycling about 20 percent of our cans. So there\u2019s a lot of cans out there that are going into the garbage,\u201d McCormick said. <\/p>\n
Same goes for paper and boxes. Recyclers want that! <\/p>\n
High in demand right now is cardboard. Just make sure you flatten it first before you put it in the bin. And yes, that even means pizza boxes.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you can empty your pizza box and it\u2019s relatively clean, then we do want it,\u201d McCormick said. <\/p>\n
Remember to recycle right: No plastic bags ever! Only clean, dry, empty cardboard, paper, bottles and cans.<\/p>\n
\u201cRecycling works when you do it right,\u201d McCormick said. \u201cWhen in doubt, throw it out in the garbage.\u201d<\/p>\n
With landfill space quickly running out in both Miami-Dade and Broward, recycling correctly has never been more urgent. There\u2019s even a website<\/a> that was just launched and that we recently featured to make the process so much easier and eliminate the guessing game.<\/p>\nCopyright 2025 by WPLG Local10.com – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Right now, Miami-Dade County generates 5 million tons of trash each year and only 37 percent of that…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":330676,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[192,79],"class_list":["post-330675","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=330675"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/330675\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/330676"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=330675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=330675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=330675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}