Until recently local recycling companies have not been recycling plastic tubs, that would be your yogurt, cottage cheese, butter, sour cream etc, containers. See Cuyahoga county solid waste website for more information As a service to the UUCC congregation, Ministry for Earth, in the spirit of the 7th principle, is now offering tub recycling to our congregants.

All you need to do is to bring your clean, dry plastic tubs and place them in the Blue round recycle bin that is located on the 1st floor of the building next to the 3 bin system near the door to the kitchen. Members and friends of our congregation will be taking these items and placing them in our home recycle bins. Be considerate Dirty items will be placed in the dumpster.

This recycling offer is in addition to our other recycling programs: Paper recycling bins in the parking lot, Food waste by subscription to Rust Belt Riders, bottles and cans inside the building.

 Information from Cuyahoga Solid Waste
 What is a plastic tub? A plastic tub is an open-top circular, oblong or square container. It may have an unattached snap-on lid or cover. An example of a plastic tub is butter, sour cream, cottage cheese, dairy or whipped topping, or fruit and yogurt cups.

Tubs must be empty, clean and dry before being recycled. Which recycling processors are able to accept tubs?Republic Services, Rumpke Waste & Recycling, and Waste Management accept plastic tubs for recycling in Cuyahoga County. If your community is serviced by one of these companies, you can recycle tubs. 

Which recycling processors are able to accept tubs?Republic Services, Rumpke Waste & Recycling, and Waste Management accept plastic tubs for recycling in Cuyahoga County. If your community is serviced by one of these companies, you can recycle tubs. See details for your community.

See Rumpke’s fact sheet about adding tubs to recycling. At this time, Kimble Companies does not accept tubs for recycling. In Cuyahoga County, what communities can include tubs in their recycling?

Bay Village	Glenwillow	Olmsted Township
Bratenahl	Hunting Valley	Parma
Brecksville	Linndale	Parma Heights
Broadview Heights	Maple Heights	Rocky River
Brook Park	Middleburg Heights	Seven Hills
Cuyahoga Heights	North Olmsted	Strongsville
East Cleveland (drop off)	North Randall	Valley View (drop off)
Fairview Park	North Royalton	Westlake
Gates Mills	Oakwood Village	Woodmere
	Olmsted Falls

What about other plastics? Can all plastics be recycled?In Cuyahoga County, all empty plastic bottles or jugs can go in your curbside recycling. This includes items like water and soda bottles, shampoo bottles, milk, water and juice jugs, laundry detergent jugs and bleach bottles. Think containers with a “neck.” Bottles and jugs should be emptied and rinsed. Replace the cap and place in your curbside recycling. See more about plastic bottles and jugs plus a list of other items.

These items are not plastic tubs. Do not include them in recycling:

• NO clamshells, berry or produce containers.
• NO disposable plastic cups or party cups.
• NO takeout containers. 

Why can’t all plastics be recycled? There is an abundance of plastic packaging in our society today and only about 9% of it can currently be recycled. This is due to limited markets for recycled plastic (not all manufacturers produce packaging from recycled plastic) and the complexities or sorting out the various kinds of plastic. Until there is a major shift in the demand for recycled plastic and more sensible packaging design, consumers are limited in our recycling options. But we do have a choice now to reduce our consumption of single-use plastic. Small changes add up to less plastic waste in our landfills and our environment. Consider these ideas for reducing waste.