Can I recycle that? What to know about recycling and composting in Boise
This story was originally published May 24, 2019.
If you’ve lived in Boise for a while now, you know that recycling is one of the areas that get a bit complicated, even for those who have lived here their whole lives. Recycling took a turn in 2018 when China put strict limits on what it will and will not take. Boise’s Public Works Department found some clever ways to compensate, but they’re complicated.
Boise City Public Works Recycling Specialist Peter McCullough and Communications Coordinator Natalie Monro helped create this 5x5 Guide to recycling in the City of Trees.
No. 1: The basics
Boise offers four levels of waste removal: trash pickup, recycling, composting and the Hefty ReNew Orange Energy Bag program. Meridian, Eagle and Garden City also offer orange bag programs for residential.
Republic Services is the company that picks up the tan trash bins and green-lidded compost bins weekly, and the blue recycling bins every two weeks. Western Recycling manages the recycling stream.
Beware of products labeled “compostable plastic.” It’s like “flushable wipes,” a complete misnomer. “It takes too long to break down,” McCullough says. These include things like some coffee maker pods, and salad mix containers. It can’t go into the orange bag because it’s not petrolatum-based plastic, so it goes in the trash.
If you have a question about whether something can be recycled, throw it in the trash. The most hurtful thing is “wishful recycling,” McCullough says. “We’re focused on quality not quantity of recycling.”
The city’s website features a sorting guide.
The bottom line is it’s important to reduce your footprint. So, think before you toss. Think before you take. Learn more at Curbit.CityofBoise.org.
Check out the city’s website and collection guide.
No. 2: The blue cart
Republic Services delivers its contents to Western Recycling every two weeks. To find out your schedule, look for the orange or purple decal under your blue cart lid. Then check the city’s recycling calendar to know your week.
You can not put single-use, No. 1, crinkly plastic water bottles — like the ones you buy at Costco — in recycling. They must go in the garbage bin. You can recycle more substantial plastics, a consistency of a soda bottle. All items must be loose, not in plastic or paper bags.
Cardboard can go in, but you must break them down. You also can recycle mixed paper because Western Recycling found a secondary market for it. That’s not the case in other cities.
No hinged-lid plastic “clamshell” containers for to-go food, fruit, vegetables and other items. No wax-coated containers like to-go coffee cups, frozen dinner trays, dairy and juice cartons, and no glass.
You can recycle aluminum and steel cans. Just give it a light rinse to remove food and you don’t have to worry about removing the labels. You can recycle foil. Just give it a prince, and gather it in a ball larger than 2 inches in circumference.
No. 3: Orange ReNew Bag
Residents can buy Hefty ReNew bags at participating retailers, including Walmart and selected Albertsons stores and online.
Plastics must be free of food contamination. So, rinse out ridged plastic containers, cups, etc.
Plastics labeled 4, 5, 6, and 7 only, and plastic bags and wrap can go in the orange bag. You also can include plastic straws, utensils, drinking and cups.
The good news is that No. 6 Styrofoam can go in, too. So foam to-go and meat containers can go in but they must be rinsed. You can put in molded Styrofoam packing material as long as you break it into small pieces. But no molded clear plastic packaging material.
Tie the bag off and don’t over-stuff it. It defeats the purpose if the bag breaks open before it reaches its destination and contaminates the stream, McCullough says.
No. 4: Composting
Why compost: Boise started its curbside residential compost program in the summer of 2017. Nearly 46% of waste collected from single-family homes in Boise is green matter. It costs the city millions to dump garbage at Ada County Landfill. Getting anything out of the waste stream saves money and helps the environment.
Green waste — fruit and vegetable scraps, yard waste (yes, even weeds) — goes in the green-lidded bin. The exceptions are noxious weeds such as goathead, also called puncturevine, and field bindweed.
What else can go in? Egg shells, coffee grounds, tea bags without the strings, tabs, and staples, and sticks and branches as long as they fit in the cart.
The BIG NOs: No oil, meat, dairy (milk and cheese), vegetables drenched in dressing or pet waste.
If you have more yard waste in the spring and fall you can fill your cart and have up to 10 brown paper leaf bags per week.
What’s the benefit? Sign up for the composting program, and you can collect up to 2 cubic yards of city-made compost per household. That’s about a truckload, McCullough says. You can pick up your compost at The Idaho Botanical Garden, 2355 N. Old Penitentiary Road and Joplin Road Compost Site, 12142 W. Joplin Road in Boise.
No. 5: Glass
The city is proud of its glass recycling program because the secondary market for it is local. Environmental Abrasive grinds it into a non-silica sandblasting material.
Glass does not go in the blue cart.
The city does not provide regular curbside glass pickup. You can request an additional cart for glass that costs an extra $6.60 a month for the 65-gallon cart, and gets picked up monthly.
You can drop glass off at several Albertsons grocery store parking lots; Western Recycling, 1990 S. Cole Road, across from the entrance to the Boise Costco; and Pacific Steel and Recycling, 5120 Emerald St., and other locations.
Make sure to take off lids of jars, and screw-caps and corks off wine bottles. Those must go in the trash.
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