As you've probably heard in the news, worldwide markets for recyclables have recently collapsed. Westport (and municipalities like ours) used to earn money from sale of our recyclables, but as of 2019 it now costs the town to have our recyclables processed. This problem is partly due to "contamination" of our recyclables because many of us don't know exactly what is and is not recyclable (did you know that if you put things in your single-stream recycling that don't belong, that "contamination" can cause the entire truckload of materials to be dumped rather than recycled?!) Please see the following guides and share the info with your family to avoid common mistakes. And remember-- the best way to solve our waste and pollution problems is to AVOID SINGLE-USE PRODUCTS wherever possible!
DOWNLOAD PDFs of the below guides here. (Print and post over your recycling bin at home!) Also find more great info at https://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?A=4918&Q=598944