Urban Impact’s #recyclingitright Campaign helps keep “Tanglers” out of Blue Bins

Keeping “Tanglers” out of the Blue Bin  with Urban Impact’s #recyclingitright Campaign

Its almost the Holiday season and in keeping with holiday jargon we thought this months Blog post could address Holiday Tanglers rather than Holiday Minglers!  Ok, I think these COVID times are hitting hard when a recycling company is dangling into holiday metaphors and references.

Why are “tanglers” such a challenge?

Tanglers are of particular concern as the tanglers wrap around the processing equipment and create a safety concern and secondly impact equipment performance and lastly take a long time to cut off and remove from  processing equipment. 

Tanglers can come in all shapes and sizes and include plastic bags, rope, hoses, metal chains, electrical cords, string lights, clothes hangers and clothing .

Here’s an easy rule of thumb: If it’s durable and stringy and you can get it in a knot, then don’t recycle it.

For recycling to work and worker safety, processing facilities need to keep our recycling mix clean and free of tanglers.

Every day, our sort team spends hours removing “tanglers” from equipment.  This creates an unnecessary safety hazard for workers and can cause plant shutdowns, wasting time that could be used to successfully recover material for recycling.

Keep recycling equipment tangler-free and working properly by leaving these items out of your blue ibn.

Find the right location to take these materials for recycling or reuse.  Items such as plastic bags, film and wrap can be taken to retail drop-off locations to be recycled. Scrap metal, such as those metal chains, can be taken to scrap metal recyclers, where they can be sent to become new car parts or appliances and not damage recycling processing equipment.

Clothing and textiles can be taken to your local thrift store to be reused, reducing waste and helping your local community.

Electronic waste, which is defined as any appliance with a cord, can be recycled. If items are still in working condition, consider donating them to a local charitable organization for reuse.

Urban Impact’s #recyclingitright Recycling Education Campaign

Over the last few months, we have been running a series on Instagram @UIRecycling on #recyclingsafely #recyclingitright.  Our focus has been to highlight items that should not be placed in the blue bin or blue box recycling.  We have tried to describe the item carefully and provide some alternatives to putting it in the blue bin. 

Awareness of what can and can't be recycled is always a challenge.  So many of us want to do the right thing and put items in the recycling bin #wishcycling as opposed to #recyclingitright. Social media gives us a fun way to engage with others and share #recyclingitright tips.

We know that consumers prefer brands that present an honest, friendly, and helpful brand personality on social media.  Our goal was to create a genuine rapport with our target market by bonding over shared values #recyclingitright. 

In addition to Instagram, Urban Impact also provides a Waste Wizard for our customers on a handy Urban Impact Recycling app.  If you have any questions on what can and cannot go in the blue bin, the Waste Wizard can help.  Whether your question is about hair curlers, milk jugs or toothpaste containers you should be able to find the answer on the Waste Wizard.

This holiday season, #Recyclingitright will help the holiday tangles! 😊  Thanks for doing your part!