“What Goes Where” tool helps Orange County residents recycle the right stuff

New web resource helps with recycling, as well as large items, yard waste, garbage and hazardous waste disposal

From the Orange County Newsroom

Orange County Utilities has launched a new web resource called What Goes Where, designed to help residents in unincorporated Orange County with recycling, as well as large items, yard waste, garbage and hazardous waste disposal. Unfortunately, many residents put the wrong things in their blue lid recycling carts, so the overall goal is to help raise awareness about good recycling habits.

“Recycling guidelines may vary from county to county, city to city, and state to state, and it’s confusing, even for people who recycle all the time,” said Jessica Kitt, Senior Utilities Maintenance Coordinator. “The What Goes Where tool helps get people to put more right things and less wrong things in their blue lid roll carts.”

In Orange County, each truck contains recyclable materials from about 1,000 households. While a certain amount of contamination is allowed in each recycle truck load, if there is too much contamination, the entire truck gets rejected and goes to the landfill.

"The good news", said Kitt, "is that most residents are fixing their behaviors once they know what to do."

ReCollect, a technology company that specializes in solid waste and recycling solutions, provided Orange County with a baseline of items for What Goes Where, and the Solid Waste Division added additional items based on questions they were frequently being asked.

“It helps residents quickly look up an item and know what to do with it, and if an item doesn’t show up, it takes you to another page where you can click on ‘Suggest as a New Item’ and type it in,” explained Cindy Harpel, Utilities Services Specialist. “

For more on What Goes Where and other curbside collection information, go to Residential Curbside Collection Program. Residents with questions can also call the Solid Waste Hotline at 407-836-6601, where customer service reps are ready to help. What Goes Where can also be accessed on a mobile device by downloading the County’s 311 app on that device.