CARLISLE, Pa. (WHTM) - Cardboard, plastic and paper are items you typically recycle, but one disposal service is rejecting items that don't belong in the bins.
"The trash company came, but recycling rolled right past," said Phylisha Berry.
Berry said Advanced Disposal has skipped picking up her bins three weeks in a row.
Instead, Advanced Disposal puts a bright orange sticker saying there were items they couldn't accept.
"All of the sudden now you have to wash all of your containers, put them in there," Berry said. "You can't put cardboard in there. No more newspapers, no more pizza boxes. What is recyclable then?"
Borough Manager Matt Candland said the rules of their recycling program haven't changed, but China's regulations have.
"They're accepting less and less of our recycling, which means if you have contaminated recycling, it's going to be going to the landfills, so the haulers are a lot more particular about what they collect," Candland said.
Cardboard is acceptable, but not if there are greasy pizza stains. Plastic is acceptable too, if there's no liquid or food inside.
"Unfortunately we've all kind of created this situation now where a lot of us weren't following the rules for a long time," Candland said. "Now we really need to follow the rules so it's requiring us to change the way we do things."
It can be costly for Advanced Disposal, if by the time they process the recycling, they find items that should really be trash.
"The more efficient we can be and all of the other are efficient as well, that will bring down the price for all of us," Candland said. "So it's in our best interest to try and be responsible in our recycling."
For a list of what you can and can't recycle, click here.