HELENA — The City of Helena has gotten calls from people concerned that the recycling the City Transfer Station receives goes straight to the landfill.
Public Information Officer Rebecca Connors says those rumors just aren’t true.
“In today’s age with podcasts and the internet, they’re a lot of varying theories of what happens to your recycling,” said Connors. “Here in Helena, as long as they are properly cleaning them, when we receive a product we make sure they get to those respective facilities that handle the actual recycling.”
The items for recycling go to various city partners like Pacific Steel and Recycling for processing.
“Last year in 2019 citizens in Helena were able to divert over 8,500 tons away from the landfill,” said Connors. “Even though the City might have to pick up the bill on some recyclables such as plastic it’s totally worth it.
Even though China drastically cut back their imports of plastic waste to recycle last year, the City still takes type 1 and type 2 plastic through an agreement with Helena Recycling.
The City Transfer station will also take aluminum, corrugated cardboard, magazines, container glass, newspaper, office paper, plastics, steel cans, e-waste recycling, car batteries, waste oil and antifreeze
Some items cannot be recycled due to contaminants, like residual pizza on pizza boxes or containers that haven’t been thoroughly cleaned.
The City also doesn’t have any control over what people throw away in their trash and choose not to recycle.
More information about recycling options through the City of Helena can be found here.
