Wish-cycling Prohibited at Erie Recycling Center

What is 'wish-cycling'?
Wish-cycling is the practice of tossing questionable items in the recycling bin, hoping, dreaming, and wishing they can be recycled. 

What's the harm of wish-cycling?
The reality is that wish-cycling could cause an entire load of good, single stream recycling, to become contaminated trash - making its way to the landfill instead of being recycled.

How to prevent wish-cycling?
Action for Impact #1: Check out the handy single stream recycling guide for a list of what can, and cannot be accepted at the Erie Recycling Center.

Action for Impact #2: Responsibly dispose of polystyrene (styrofoam) and plastic bags. Polystyrene takes more than 500 years to break down! Instead, bring to:

• CHaRM (Boulder),
• Green Girl Recycling (Longmont),
• SustainAbility (Arvada),
• EPS Packaging,
• and many UPS Stores.

Action for Impact #3: Be intentional with purchases. 

• Be a responsible consumer. Purchase items packaged in post-consumer recycled materials or items that don’t use packaging at all!
• Ask for aluminum foil at a restaurant instead of a take-out box – maybe even bring your own if you know you’ll be having leftovers!
• Use a refillable coffee mug or drinking glass!
• Buy eggs in recycled paper cartons!
• Be creative! Save Styrofoam and reuse it for repackaging craft projects, place in planters to save from using too much potting soil and aid draining, re-stuff old bean-bag chairs, pillows, stuffed animals, etc. 

As always, if you have any questions about single-stream recycling visit https://www.erieco.gov/282/Erie-Recycling-Center or contact Tyler Kesler, at tkesler@erieco.gov, or call 303-926-2880.