The Board of Health has established a 50% recycling goal with the intent of increasing quantity and improving the quality of the materials being recycled at the transfer station. In 2016, the Town of Goshen had a recycling rate of 31.3%
Many residents are conscientious about recycling and believe that they are properly recycling. The Board of Health encourages you to be aware of recycling’s “Most Unwanted”. Bagging recycling in plastic bags is one of the most common problems at the Springfield Municipal Recycling Facility (MRF).
Residents are reminded to keep these items out of your recycling bin:
- No Plastic Bags in with recycling – they bind up sorting material at the MRF
- No Placement of Recycling in Plastic Bags
- No Cords or wrapping items – these shut down MRF rollers
- No Loose Shredded Paper – place shredded paper in paper bags
- Keep non-recyclable plastics out of the MRF container. For example:
- No Plastic Cups – place with household trash
- No Plastic Containers that contained a hazardous material – i.e. windshield washer fluid, bleach, nail polish, motor oil, etc.
- No wet-strength paper – soda and beer sleeves and paper items from the frozen food section of the grocery store are reinforced with plastic to prevent them from collapsing when wet. These cannot be recycled into paper.
- No food waste in containers – Please rinse. Clean pizza boxes- okay. Pizza in ‘the box is not!
- No scrap metal – it damages recycling equipment. Place in metal bin.
- No ceramics, drinking glasses, canning jars
- No fluorescent light bulbs or CRTs – see attendant for special collection area. Mercury bulbs that are broken have had the mercury released. Place broken bulb in with your household trash.
In addition to properly recycling, the Board of Health encourages residents to be mindful to REDUCE waste and to do all that you can to RE-USE products or repurpose them.
To help reduce your food waste, the Board of Health continues to provide Town residents with Earth Machine Compost Bins. The Town offers the bins for $45 (retail $99) through the HRMC. To place your order, call or email the HRMC Administrator with your name, street. address, (mailing address, if different) and phone number. HRMC email: hrmc@hrmc-ma.org; phone: 413-685-5498
When in doubt, give the attendants a shout! They are glad to answer your recycling questions.
