I’ve recently heard of some complaints about people’s recycling blowing around the neighborhood, and folks trying a variety of ways to deal with the problem — even deciding they would not recycle. Besides recycling being required by ordinance in Brunswick, there are better ways!

The blue bins are easy. Some already have lids on them, but when they don’t (and my own is both tall and uncovered), you just put a piece of wood, cardboard or folded newspaper on top of the bin and hold it down with a brick or stone.

I have never had my can fall over when I’ve prepared it that way. It takes the collection people nearly half a nano-second to flip off the top when they’re ready to dump the can, so that is not an issue for them. If there is no wind, I just put relatively heavy or bulky things on the top of the material in the bin, and then don’t worry about it.

The second thing to consider is that there is no requirement for any particular type or color of bin for your recycling. Blue is the universally accepted color for recycling, with green for organics, and black or silver for trash. In fact, however, any container that is clearly marked will do just as well.

A normal steel or (dare I say it?) even plastic trash can on which you have stenciled “Recycling” in large, clear letters, or otherwise clearly labeled it as being for the recycling, not for trash, will suffice. Those are unlikely to blow over, and all have tight lids on them, which will keep the material inside, even if they do.

What we can not do is put the recyclables into the recycle bin inside an additional bag or box, even if the box contains only more boxes. When the recycling arrives at the local processing station, it’s dumped from the packer truck onto the floor of the facility.

It’s at that point that someone would need to empty the bag or box, but two conditions deter that from happening. One is that the person doing the work would have to be working on the processing floor with packer trucks coming and going and dumping more material. That’s much too dangerous for anybody to be doing it.

The second issue is that the person who would open the bag or box can’t see what’s in it, and some dangerous trash has been found in them in the past, so the processors refuse to subject their people to that possibility.

In either case, what you’ve carefully recycled is immediately re-designated trash.

Since we are presumably all now washing our recyclables, our bins do not get unduly dirty, so there is no problem with dropping the recyclables in there loosely and covering the bin on a windy day.

The Recycle Bin is a weekly column on what to recycle, what not to recycle, and why, in Brunswick. The public is encouraged to submit questions by email to brunsrecycleinfo@gmail.com. Harry Hopcroft is a member of the Brunswick Recycling and Sustainability Committee.