Garbage is in the eye of the beholder, but we’ve always been drawn to glass, cans, and paper. Even plastic!

Skinny necks. Wide bottoms.

Plastic is an odd and maddening material. It has allowed mankind to create all sorts of wonderful containers that protect, preserve, and even sustain. But since plastic has no natural recycling structure, it must be “re-purposed” into things like park benches and play structures. That is not easily done, nor is it even always possible. A simple rule of thumb that residential recyclers can follow is: If the neck is skinnier than the bottom, we’re interested in that piece of plastic and we can find a future life for it. Plastic items that might not meet those criteria? Those clear plastic boxes you get from your favorite deli. They’re really tough customers for any recycler.

Glass, on the other hand, is basically sand, so it can be easily recycled, almost no matter what its color and shape. We’ll take all your bottles and jars and find something good to do with them.

Aluminum cans, too, are right up our alley, and we can put them right back to work with minimal effect on the environment.

Paper doesn’t get any better as it gets recycled, but it definitely can be recycled. And recycling is certainly easier than cutting trees. So give us your tired, your poor newspapers, yearning to be recycled.