Beginning next month, residents who recycle can include plastic ketchup bottles and yogurt containers along with their milk jugs and pop bottles.
The city’s waste hauler, Browning-Ferris Industries, has agreed to accept for recycling most varieties of plastics, which number from 1 to 7, and even those without numbers.
“This is a groundbreaking program,” said Marta Touloumes, St. Charles’ recycling coordinator. “It means people don’t have to throw this out anymore and less (plastic) will be going into landfills.”
In St. Charles as in many Chicago suburbs with recycling programs, people were encouraged to recycle common plastics such as soda bottles, or No. 1, and milk jugs and laundry detergent containers, which are No. 2 plastics.
The waste hauler even accepted polystyrene, or No. 6 plastic. But many consumer products like ketchup, yogurt and orange juice are packaged in less common plastics, stamped with numbers 3, 4, 5 or 7.
With the new program, BFI will even accept the plastic caps that come on the containers.
Touloumes said the only thing BFI will not accept are plastic shopping bags and plastic containers that held motor oil and other petroleum-based products.
Also beginning July 1, residents will pay an extra 7 cents to throw away a bag of garbage. The cost of pre-printed city refuse bags will increase to $1.33, while stickers, which can be placed on regular consumer bags, will go up to $1.25.