Page 15 - Overview Fall 2019

Recycle right
A volunteer group donned hardhats, safety vests and heavy duty gloves to sort through a truckload of items put out for curbside recycling here in Overland Park. While the results weren’t great, the solution, on an individual level, is pretty simple: Recycle the right stuff the right way.
What lessons did we learn while sorting materials? The following may be recycled through your curbside ser vice:
Cans and cartons - Food and beverage containers.
Paper - Magazines, newspapers and office paper.
Cardboard and paperboard - Flattened and without any food or oil stains. This includes pizza boxes. Plastic bottles and containers - Rinsed. No foam cups or containers.
The following cannot be recycled at curbside:
Plastic bags - There are a lot of spinning parts required to efficiently sort recyclables. Plastic bags wrap around everything, causing other recyclables to be discarded while increasing sorting facility downtime and costs. Recycle plastic bags properly at retail locations, such as your grocery store.
Materials in plastic bags - Nearly 10 percent of all recyclables were wrapped inside plastic bags. Everything in a plastic bag ends up in the trash. Open top paper bags are OK but plastic bags are not.
Shredded paper or other tiny items - Shredded paper falls through the screening machinery and ends up in the trash. If you must shred at home discard it with your trash. The same can be said of loose bottle caps and other tiny items.
Glass - Glass collected at curbside frequently breaks and contaminates recyclable plastics and papers.
All glass containers and the materials it contaminates end up in the trash. Recycle glass
at one of the many purple Ripple metal containers around town.
Non-recyclable plastics - Foam clamshells,
Styrofoam, pipes, cutting boards, medication
bottles, plastic sheet all end up in the trash. A symbol does not make it recyclable.
No scrap metal - The processing machinery is designed to recognize and sort cans. Scrap metal causes damage and ends up in the trash. Recycle
scrap metals at the Overland Park drop off Recycling Center, 11921 Hardy, behind the fire
station.
Be informed. Don’t be a wishful recycler - Clothing, electronics, decorations and other
items that you’d like to recycle and may be recyclable elsewhere all end up in the trash when
collected with curbside recycling.
Tolerant plants, trees that enliven your landscape
With heat and less rainfall during the summer, many of us may lose perennials, shrubs and trees. Looking forward to 2020 here are few species of perennial plants and trees to consider that typically tolerate drier conditions.
Trees:
Hedge maple
Lacebark elm or Frontier elm Thornless fruitless honeylocustBald cypress Sawtooth oak
Kentucky coffee tree
Bur oak
Goldenrain tree
Perennial Plants:
Black-eyed Susan Indian blanket Yarrow
Garden phlox Lambs ear Caryopteris Daylily
Salvia
Although these plants can handle drier sites, it is important to provide supplemental water for at least the first few years of establishment.
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