Recycle Right: Trash the Tanglers

Doing your part to recycle helps keep valuable materials out of the landfill, but only when the right items go into the recycling bin. One of the most common contaminants that cause big problems in the recycling process are tanglers like cords and hoses. Keeping these items out of your recycling rollout protects the entire system and ensures your efforts truly make a difference.

Tanglers like cords, hoses, and clothes hangers tangle in the machinery at recycling facilities, causing equipment breakdowns and safety hazards. These items cannot be processed in curbside recycling. Electrical, charging, and Christmas light cords can be taken to your local household hazardous waste event or another approved site for these cords. Metal clothes hangers can be taken back to the dry cleaners where you received them. Garden hoses are to be thrown away.

It only takes one contaminated recycling cart to contaminate an entire collection truck. That’s why recycling correctly is a shared responsibility. When residents recycle right, more materials make it to the recycling center and fewer end up in the landfill. Together, we can keep Hickory’s recycling stream clean, efficient, and sustainable for years to come. Thanks for doing your part to recycle smart!

For more information about residential recycling in the City of Hickory and helpful tips for recycling right at home and in the office, visit the City of Hickory website, www.hickorync.gov/sanitation.