By Carol Hillestad for the Brodhead Watershed Association, Monroe County

You’ve probably figured out how to recycle, reuse, or dispose of a lot of what used to be called “waste.” Things like cardboard and paper, glass jars and bottles, metal cans, and milk jugs and other #1 and #2 plastics.

Maybe you even compost your kitchen waste, grass clippings and leaves.

What about the hard stuff? All those yogurt containers, compact fluorescent bulbs, batteries, used motor oil?

In Monroe County, Chestnuthill Township offers the most options for its residents. An amazing 38 different kinds of things can be recycled!

Most are free, and items like mattresses and furniture are accepted for disposal for a small fee. Residents can drop off their yard waste, which is shredded and composted and available for free to residents.

Township Manager Dave Albright says that their “pay-as-you-throw” system provides a direct benefit to residents because “people can lower their disposal costs by recycling as much as they can, then pay by the bag for less trash.”

Polk Township offers similar services to their residents, on a smaller scale. In fact, they cooperate with Chestnuthill to market recycled cardboard and plastics.

Stroud Township also accepts their residents’ yard waste at its compost and mulch facility on Gaunt Road:  leaves, grass clippings, tree branches, limbs and brush. Residents can self-load compost to use in the garden.

Any resident of Monroe County can get a recycling tag to recycle the basics at the Waste Authority’s two recycling sites. The Waste Authority can also help with everything from road-killed deer to disposing of electronics.

The professionals agree: “single stream” recycling mostly ends up in the landfill because of contamination.

The Waste Authority’s executive director, Jim Lambert, offers a ray of hope for plastics, however.

“Advanced chemical recycling is coming to Pennsylvania,” he says. “This process in effect re-makes plastics of all kinds — not just #1 and #2 — into the equivalent of new, virgin plastic, ready to be reused. That’s true plastic recycling.”

The process should be available within about a year.

And what does all that mean for our drinking water?

Single-use plastic is a major polluter of creeks, streams, and groundwater — and not just the plastic bags that suffocate or entangle aquatic life.

Plastic that doesn’t get recycled breaks down into microscopic bits. These particles pollute the air, water, fish — and ourselves.

Even newborns have been found to have these nano-plastics in their bodies.

So if you haven’t already, ditch the single-use plastics. No water bottles, throw-away knives and forks, or grocery bags.

Skip the single-stream recycling, and take your #1 and #2 plastics, cardboard, glass and metal cans to the Waste Authority’s recycling centers.

And stay tuned for advanced chemical recycling. Coming soon!

Get more information at 570-643-6100 or go to the Waste Authority website— get your tag for their recycling sites, and check out “What do I do with…” for recycling ideas.

Recycling Site locations:

-- DCNR Recycling Site -  2174 PA-611 Swiftwater, PA 18370

-- Military Road Recycling Site - 1114 Military Road Stroudsburg, PA 18360

Visit the Brodhead Protecting Clean Water Together webpage for more articles in this series.

Click Here for Brodhead Watershed Association Upcoming Events.

For more information on programs, initiatives and other upcoming events, visit the Brodhead Watershed Association website or Follow them on Facebook.  Click Here to sign up for regular updates from the Association.  Click Here to become a member.

NewsClips:

-- Republican Herald: PPL To Host Small Appliance Recycling Event At Frackville Center June 3

-- Erie Times Guest Essay: ‘Advanced’ Plastics Recycling Is Real And Erie Is Poised To Lead The Nation Forward - By IRG

Related Articles:

-- Nature At Risk: Are Bats Flying Back From The Brink? - By Carol Hillestad for the Brodhead Watershed Association, Monroe County  [PaEN]

-- PA Resources Council, Partners To Host Household Chemical Collection Events In Fayette, Washington Counties In June [PaEN]

-- PA Resources Council Announces Schedule Of Summer Public Events Committed To Zero Waste In Western Pennsylvania  [PaEN] 

-- Keep PA Beautiful, DCED Host June 13 Webinar On How Your Community Can ‘Fight Dirty’ - A Review Of Anti-Littering Media Assets, Tools And Resources  [PaEN]

-- Protecting Clean Water Together - Disposing Of The Hard Stuff - By Carol Hillestad for the Brodhead Watershed Association, Monroe County  [PaEN]

[Posted: June 1, 2023]

6/5/2023