1. Dealing with plastic bags and wrappings

Soft plastic products such as plastic bags (shopping, food, newspaper, dry cleaning), and Bubble wrap are recycled through local grocery stores, not in the blue bins at curbside.

Shaw’s will currently take only the plastic shopping bags.

Hannaford will take all listed bags and wrap them following the rule that the plastic should be soft and deformable without tearing. Examples: bread bags, bags containing potatoes, carrots, rolled single-use produce bags, newspaper bags, dry cleaning bags, bread bags, produce bags, toilet paper, napkin, and paper towel wraps, furniture wrap, electronic wrap, plastic retail bags/Packaging (hard plastic, string handles removed, deli bags and containers), grocery bag, plastic food storage bags (clean and dry) – (e.g. Ziploc bags), plastic cereal box liners (if it tears like paper do, not include it), diaper wrap (packaging), plastic shipping envelopes, bubble wrap, and air pillows (deflate/remove labels if possible), case wrap (e.g., snacks, water bottles), all clean, dry bags labeled #2 or #4.

Please recycle only clean, dry plastic bags or sheets. Remove receipts or any other items from bags. Rigid crinkly plastic bags are unacceptable.

Do not include the following. They are considered contaminants and could jeopardize the recycling programs: food, cling wrap, prepackaged food bags including frozen food bags (e.g., prewashed salad or frozen vegetable bags), plastic that has been painted or has excessive glue, other bags or films, degradable bags.

Exceptions: bags inside cookie, cracker, and cereal boxes that look like wax paper are recyclable even though not deformable, but the ones that are silver and look like foil can NOT be recycled. Trash those and recycle the box itself.

2. Does that include dog and cat food bags?

Neither of those items can be recycled. When plastic, they crinkle, so don’t meet the criterion of stretchable plastic, and the paper ones have an inner liner of plastic film that cannot be separated from the paper.

3. The rings that hold soda bottles together are plastic, aren’t they?

Yes, but they are not recyclable plastic. There are two common types. One is used on smaller soda bottles and is rigid, which is not a recyclable type of plastic. The other is used on some slightly larger bottles, like sports drinks, and looks like the same stuff as orange juice bottles. It’s not quite the same, but, more importantly, once off the bottles, the rings themselves can get tangled up in the sorting equipment and cause damage there, so they are also not recyclable. You should notice that neither of these kinds of rings has a recycle label imprinted on them.

Please also cut any enclosed spaces on them, so small creatures will not get caught in the ring and either suffocate or strangle.