GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Kent County’s recycling center will stop accepting plastic bags and shredded paper next year.
The Recycling & Education Center says plastic bags create issues for the sorting center because the bags tangle around machinery and get mixed with bales of paper. Another issue is a lack of a recycling market for the bags, so the county has paid to send them to an Indiana facility.
Instead of putting plastic bags into their recycling bin, residents are asked to return them to stores that offer a collection system like Meijer.
The recycling center also won’t accept shredded paper because it is usually too small to be detected and get sorted correctly. People are asked to only shred of what is necessary and recycle whole pieces of paper.
Changes go into effect Jan. 1, 2020.
