Stop the tangle: Help Austin’s recycling efforts

By Michael Taylor

20 percent of the material that is collected in Austin’s blue recycling carts can’t be recycled curbside. Contamination occurs when we put non-recyclable materials or trash into our blue recycling carts, which can cause major issues later on at the recycling facility. One of the largest contaminants? “Tanglers

Tanglers are materials that physically cause tangling issues in the recycling process. These include items like plastic bags, trash bags, garden hoses, strings of lights, power cords, clothing, rope and other long, flexible items.

Here’s how it works: Items from your blue recycling cart are sent to a large sorting facility, where machines with gears and cogs move at high speeds to sort the materials. When tanglers, such as plastic bags or garden hoses, get mixed in, they become tangled in the gears. This leads to delays and even standstills in operations, as employees must now shut down the machinery in order to remove the items. It’s a tangled mess! 

You can make a difference by keeping tanglers out of your blue recycling carts. If you see an item that is made of flexible, stretchy or long material, take a second to ask, “Could this material/item get wrapped around the gears of a machine?” If the answer is yes, don’t put it in your blue cart. 

Keep these tanglers out of the blue recycling cart: