Johnson County Department of Health and Environment will return to Mission to continue the Recycle Right education efforts for households in the Friday trash/recycling collection area.

The “Recycle Right” campaign provides direct feedback to residents about the materials that shouldn’t be in recycle bins. This could include glass, which can be recycled elsewhere, or Styrofoam, which belongs in the trash.

By recycling the right way and keeping trash and non-recyclables out of recycle bins, we can all play a part in conserving resources and protecting our environment.

JCDHE staff will be working with GFL Environmental, a trash and recycling hauler, to go from house to house for a quick visual inspection of recycle bins that are placed out at the curb (only recycling not trash). Staff will then leave a checklist of the items that shouldn’t be in your recycle bin.

Note: GFL Environmental will still be picking up your recycling, there is no fine or punishment, this is for education purposes only. If you have questions about this program, please contact Brandon Hearn at brandon.hearn@jocogov.org or 913-715-6936.

Why does this matter? Recycling is important because it saves resources by taking materials and making them into new products instead of using new resources. Recycled paper is made into new paper items, aluminum cans are made into new aluminum cans and so on.

When you put things in your recycle bin that don’t belong there, they can get caught in equipment at the recycling facility, and contaminate the good recyclables (clean paper and cardboard), causing them to go to the landfill instead of being recycled.

When we bag our recyclables, all those items end up in the landfill. When recycling programs can’t recycle the materials and must spend money cleaning it up instead, recycling becomes more expensive and recycling programs can’t survive.

We can all play a part in cleaning up recycling and keeping usable materials out of the landfill.

Weather permitting, JCDHE staff will be surveying Mission on Friday, May 20 and Friday, May 27.