Starting July 1, 2015, Prince George’s County recycling will no longer accept plastic bags.

The Gazette.net article states

“We’ll be phasing in enforcement. If there’s a contaminated toter, it won’t get picked up,” Ortiz said. “It will be considered a contaminated load.”

Ortiz said plastic bags pose a hazard to the equipment used in sorting recycling.

“The plastic bags easily get caught up in the cogs of the machinery, causing us to shut down the facility several times a day,” Ortiz said. “It increases maintenance costs, and ultimately, the bags can’t be recycled when they become dirty anyway.”

…

In addition to plastic shopping bags, the ban also includes “film plastic,” such as plastic wrapping on food, plastic sandwich bags and dry cleaning bags, [DER spokeswoman, Linda] Lowe said. Loose plastic bags in recycling bins often get caught by the wind, and end up creating more environmental pollution, Lowe said.

To read the full article on the changes to Prince George’s County recycling, visit gazette.net.