Tuesday, Nov. 15 has been declared “America Recycles Day” by President Joe Biden.

In the proclamation declaring Nov. 15 America Recycles Day, Biden states, “Too many Americans are uncertain about what materials can or should be recycled.”

That is certainly true in Greensboro.  On July 1, 2019, the City of Greensboro stopped accepting glass in the brown residential recycling bins.

However, the city has a large number of glass recycling sites where glass bottles and jars can be placed in blue glass recycling containers to be recycled.

Three years later many residents are still confused by the change in the glass recycling policy, and many who attempt to comply with the new policy place plastic or paper bags full of bottles and jars in the recycling containers. Only glass bottles and jars should be placed in the glass recycling containers, not bags, boxes, tops or corks.

Plastic bags also should not be put in the brown residential recycling bins even if they are plastic bags full of materials that can be recycled.

According to the City of Greensboro RecycleRight website, “Recycling is as easy as 1-2-3. Only recycle 1) paper and cardboard, 2) metal food and drink cans, and 3) plastic bottles, tubs and jars.”

It also states, “Empty, clean, and dry.  Make sure you give bottles and jars a quick rinse. It doesn’t have to sparkling clean, but we know you don’t want pests in recycling, and neither do we!”  It sounds easy, but in practice a quick rinse of a peanut butter or mayonnaise jar doesn’t do much.

And anyone who tries to be a responsible recycler knows that there are many items that look like they should be recyclable but don’t exactly fit in any of those three categories. The GSO Collects App not only will remind you of your recycling week but has a “Waste Wizard” search feature that covers just about every item imaginable and lets you know whether it should in the recycling container or the garbage bin.