Regular Recycling Service Now Includes #5 Plastics

Previously, only #1 and #2 plastics were recyclable.  Now, #5 can be included. 

https://www.twp.maplewood.nj.us/recycling/pages/residential-curbside-recycling

A bit of good news.  

My spouse was so happy to hear this that she is still doing cartwheels. 

I find this hard to believe, given there has been zero publicity on this change.  I am going to wait until the town hall on July 22 to verify and get all the details.  Information on the town hall can be found at this link.  https://www.twp.maplewood.nj.us/home/news/maplewood-south-orange-rethinking-recycling-town-hall

joan_crystal said:

I find this hard to believe, given there has been zero publicity on this change.  I am going to wait until the town hall on July 22 to verify and get all the details.  Information on the town hall can be found at this link.  https://www.twp.maplewood.nj.us/home/news/maplewood-south-orange-rethinking-recycling-town-hall

The link Elle Cee posted is on the township website. I am sure this is a new page as I have visited that site recently and it said only #1 and #2. Now it includes #5. 

Here's how I found this out.  I tried to access the link to the survey on this page:  https://www.twp.maplewood.nj.us/home/news/maplewood-south-orange-rethinking-recycling-town-hall

It didn't work for me, so I contacted the email listed on the page.  Via an email exchange in which I asked why SO can recycle #5s, but Maplewood can't, I was told that Maplewood now recycles #5 plastics.  Then I checked out the guidelines at the above link, which further confirmed it. 

Yesterday, because the outage at the Town Hall prevented me from contacting anyone there or at Public Works, I went over to Town Hall, where I was told that a general announcement about the recycling change is forthcoming. 

I encourage everyone to participate in the Rethinking Recycling project. 

Great news!  Thank you so much for verifying the information.

joan_crystal said:

I find this hard to believe, given there has been zero publicity on this change.  I am going to wait until the town hall on July 22 to verify and get all the details.  Information on the town hall can be found at this link.  https://www.twp.maplewood.nj.us/home/news/maplewood-south-orange-rethinking-recycling-town-hall

I was aware of the change, but I can't recall where I saw it. I'm referring to Maplewood.

The contractor started taking #5 plastics again.

joan_crystal said:

I find this hard to believe, given there has been zero publicity on this change.  I am going to wait until the town hall on July 22 to verify and get all the details.  Information on the town hall can be found at this link.  https://www.twp.maplewood.nj.us/home/news/maplewood-south-orange-rethinking-recycling-town-hall

 You may want to sign up for emails Joan and not wait until July 22. I received an email announcing the #5. It was pretty clear publicity.

Here is the text part of the email I received Thursday: The chart is now changed on the email to include #5.

Since Maplewood's last recycling guidelines were published in 2018, the Township's recycling program has undergone some changes. Most notably, Maplewood's curbside recycling program now accepts #5 plastics. To provide residents with the most accurate information, an updated guide for recycling within the Township is now available on Maplewood's website: https://www.twp.maplewood.nj.us/recycling/pages/residential-curbside-recycling. The guide, which has been published in English, Spanish, and Creole, can also be found below:

Elle_Cee said:

Previously, only #1 and #2 plastics were recyclable.  Now, #5 can be included. 

https://www.twp.maplewood.nj.us/recycling/pages/residential-curbside-recycling

A bit of good news.  

 Thank you for posting this. I was going to post the same but first checked to see if someone else beat me to it, which you did. I had been mostly saving them hoping that Whole Foods would start collecting them again via the Gimme 5 bin but this is even better! And just in time for tomorrow's pick up (in my part of town).

fed123 said:

My spouse was so happy to hear this that she is still doing cartwheels. 

 If I could do a few I'd join her. Between the Trat and Panda take outs I was overflowing. (I use the white rectangles a lot but the Trat ones I didn't have any use for.)

wendy said:

 You may want to sign up for emails Joan and not wait until July 22. I received an email announcing the #5. It was pretty clear publicity.

 I made my post at 6:24 am. The email from the town was sent  later that day.

But the OP provided you with a link that shows as such regardless of the email Joan. Frankly I found your post a bit disrespectful. I was wrong about the timing of the email but that is so beyond the point. The OP posted a link they found out about. Period.

I read the link before my initial post.  As you know, the town website is full of out of date information.  Since the chart contained on the linked page was undated, I wanted to corroborate that this was the most recent information available and not an outdated page.  The OP was kind enough to post that corroboration and I thanked the OP for the follow-up.

Thanks, Wendy, but all is well.  I did not take Joan's comment amiss.  I found out about the change shortly before it was officially announced, but didn't know when it would be officially announced, thus I posted, because the sooner people revert to including their #5s in their personal recycling, the better. 

It's good for people to talk to their neighbors about this change.  I spoke to one of mine, who never realized that #5 recycling had been halted, so they had been throwing the #5s in with the #1s and #2s anyway.  I would imagine lots of people have been doing the same, so they're not the ones who need to know about the revision.  People who haven't signed up for the town's emails but have been following the old recycling guidelines do need to be informed.  I hope there'll be more publicity about this welcome change.  

There was a hardcopy mailing when they went to only #1s and 2s, including the chart of what is and is not acceptable.  I taped it to my kitchen recycle bin at the time.  I'm pretty sure it went to every address in town.  

sac is right. There will be people like the neighbor Elle_Cee mentioned above who are just clueless even though a hardcopy was mailed when they changed to just #1s and #2s. I too have it up there. And the link the OP posted shows the new chart that now includes #5.