{"id":835,"date":"2025-07-11T06:46:06","date_gmt":"2025-07-11T06:46:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/835\/"},"modified":"2025-07-11T06:46:06","modified_gmt":"2025-07-11T06:46:06","slug":"are-you-recycling-wrong-half-of-rockfords-collection-is-getting-rejected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/835\/","title":{"rendered":"Are you recycling wrong? Half of Rockford\u2019s collection is getting rejected"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Rob Wilhelmi, Rockford\u2019s brownfields redevelopment specialist, walks through a recycling transfer station on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, at the Winnebago Landfill. (Photo by Kevin Haas\/Rock River Current)
\nLarger carts led to bigger collections, but bins often contain non-recyclables
\nBy Kevin Haas
Rock River Current<\/a>
Get our mobile app<\/a><\/p>\n

ROCKFORD \u2014 Residents are filling up their recycling bins with more materials since the city rolled out new larger carts more than a year ago.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the good news for environmentally minded city officials. The bad news is that more materials are being placed in the bins that don\u2019t belong.<\/p>\n

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The city and Waste Connections, which provides residential pickup through its subsidiary Rock River Disposal, say that the number of non-recyclable materials being placed in bins has increased since the larger carts debuted.<\/p>\n

An estimated 50% of the tonnage collected from recycling bins by Waste Collections ultimately ends up in the landfill, according to Kiel Pennington, Midway Division vice president for Waste Connections.<\/p>\n

Putting incorrect materials in the bins can damage sorting equipment, lead to additional trips between the recycling facility and landfill, and potentially prevent an entire load of items from being recycled. Food waste, for example, can contaminate items such as paper and cardboard that could have otherwise been recycled. Recyclables put in a plastic bag, rather than freely in bins, can also be rejected and put in the landfill.<\/p>\n

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Both the city and company say it\u2019s a matter of educating residents on the dos and don\u2019ts of recycling. They plan to ramp up those efforts on social media and other platforms in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve put carts out for recycling in numerous towns and it never happens overnight. It takes a little time for everybody to get adjusted,\u201d Pennington said. \u201cIt takes time to educate the residents to the new way of doing things.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 96-gallon trash carts and 65-gallon recycling carts were in use across the city for a full year starting in April, and that led to a 35% increase in recycling tonnage year-over-year, according to Rob Wilhelmi, the city\u2019s brownfields redevelopment specialist. On average, each residential home increased its monthly recycling volumes from 23.9 to 32.3 pounds.<\/p>\n

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So far this year, residents have placed more than 4,600 tons of materials into recycling bins. That\u2019s a 2% increase from the first six months of last year. By comparison, about 26,600 tons of trash have been hauled away from curbs in Rockford this year, not including rejected recyclables. That\u2019s up about 3.5%.<\/p>\n

Wilhelmi points to the need for more education, noting that in some cases they\u2019ve seen the recycling instructions still stuck and unopened on people\u2019s carts a year later.<\/p>\n

Dos and don\u2019ts<\/p>\n

Clean and empty cartons, glass bottles and jars, and plastic jugs, tubs, bottles and jars are to be placed in the bins without a bag. The same is true for aluminum, steel, foil and paper.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe recycling in your cart should be loose, it shouldn\u2019t be in a bag,\u201d Pennington said. \u201cIf you have stuff in a bag there\u2019s going to be something in there, typically, that\u2019s non-recyclable.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some of the most troublesome non-recyclable items are garden hoses, extension cords, rigid plastics, toys, pots and pans, brake rotors, bags that wrap, food scraps and Christmas lights, to name a few.<\/p>\n

Those are especially concerning because they can damage the equipment that pre-sorts recyclables at Waste Connections material recovery facility Plainfield, which is where Rockford\u2019s recyclables are sent before they\u2019re sorted and shipped to manufacturers.<\/p>\n

Some non-recyclables can also be dangerous. Batteries as small as those in a vape pen or larger ones used in drills and other tools spark multiple small fires at facilities. Waste Connections previous material recovery facility in Plainfield was destroyed by a fire in May 2021. It was rebuilt on the same site with additional layers of fire safety and prevention.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe things that hurts us the most are things that wrap: hoses, extension cords are really an issue on the equipment now,\u201d Pennington said.<\/p>\n

The company said that collections on Tuesday and Wednesday in Rockford are typically seeing the highest levels of rejected materials.<\/p>\n

\"\"Kiel Pennington of Waste Connections points out non-recyclables on Wednesday, July 9, 2025, at the recycling transfer station at the Winnebago Landfill. (Photo by Kevin Haas\/Rock River Current)<\/p>\n

Recyclables go from the bin at your curb to the Winnebago Landfill, where they loaded onto semi-trailers and taken to the Plainfield material recovery facility, or MRF. Items that are contaminated or otherwise not recyclable are shipped back to the landfill.<\/p>\n

\u201cGarbage now just took a three-hour ride on a semi, there and back, only to come back to right where we would have been dumping it originally,\u201d Pennington said.\u00a0\u201cA lot of the people do a good job. It only takes a few misunderstandings on what\u2019s recyclable to escalate quickly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company measures its collections and the rejected materials in tonnage. That\u2019s part of the reason for the high percentage of non-recyclable materials, because heavier items that can\u2019t be recycled like clothes or wood quickly add to the total weight.<\/p>\n

The goal is to reduce the percentage of non-recyclables being placed in the bins to roughly 25-30%, Pennington said.<\/p>\n

Guidelines for recycling<\/p>\n

Recyclable materials should be clean and empty. They should be placed loosely in the bins without bags.<\/p>\n

Do not put food items, large items such as scrap metal or wood, plastic bags, clothing, tanglers, liquid, batteries or shredded paper in the bins.<\/p>\n

See a guide from the city below.
\n\"\"Guidelines for municipal recycling in Rockford (Image via city of Rockford)\n<\/p>\n

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This article is by\u00a0Kevin Haas<\/a>. Email him at\u00a0khaas@rockrivercurrent.com<\/a>\u00a0or follow him on X at\u00a0@KevinMHaas\u00a0<\/a>or Instagram\u00a0@thekevinhaas<\/a>\u00a0and Threads\u00a0@thekevinhaas<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n