ASHEVILLE, N.C. (WLOS) - The city of Asheville is urging residents to think twice when it comes to what they should and shouldn’t recycle.
The solid waste manager says the amount of wrong items ending up in curb-side collection bins has increased from 5 to about 8 percent in the past few years with no indication of stopping.
Jen Foster says that could lead to increased costs for contamination rates.
“If our contamination rates get too high that could mean extra costs for the City of Asheville,” said Jen Foster.
It’s all part of a bigger recycling problem nationwide.
The United States used to ship a lot of its recycling to China.
China stopped collecting it, however, she says the infrastructure isn’t really there in the United States.
“Since there are a limited number of markets, those people can demand the highest quality of recyclables, so that's where we're getting at reducing our contamination,” said Foster.
It’s why the city is applying for a $30,000 state grant for education about what can and cannot be recycled.
“A lot of people want to reduce their waste and they're like I just really want to recycle this so it doesn't go to the landfill, so they throw it in their bin just really hoping it can be recycled, but what that ends up doing is contaminating entire loads of good clean recyclables and just hurting the recycling industry,” said Foster.
For Ailsa Bennett, recycling comes second-nature.
“I don't think that I'm like woke on recycling, but you know maybe one day I was in that position where I didn't know as much adn I chose to be passionate about recycling,” she said.
It also helps that her sister works at a recycling plant.
“My sister works in California in like a large recycling and trash facility, so I feel very well informed. whenever we go on vacation, we're like ‘Let's look up the local legislation. What can and can't be recycled? What can and can't be thrown away?’ so I feel that maybe I'm kind of an anomaly, because I'm super nerdy about recycling,” she said.
Click here to find out Asheville residents can and cannot recycle from home.