Thanksgiving Recycling Tips from Morris County

The Morris County Municipal Utilities Authority says many items associated 
with Thanksgiving dinner, including aluminum products, are now recyclable in the municipalities served by its Curbside Recycling Program.

“We’re entering an aluminum-intensive season when many of us are doing lots of holiday cooking,” said Penny Jones, recycling education specialist with the MCMUA. “Now, along with aluminum cans, our curbside recycling program is able to accept other cooking-connected aluminum products as well.” 

These items include clean aluminum roasting pans, aluminum pie plates, aluminum trays and aluminum foil, Jones said. 

“The key word is clean,” Jones said. “These items must be free of any food residue and should be thoroughly cleaned in hot water with liquid dishwashing detergent so as not to contaminate the aluminum recycling process.”

According to Kathleen Hourihan, the MCMUA district recycling coordinator, the towns participating in the authority’s Curbside Recycling Program include Chatham Township, Chester Borough, East Hanover, Florham Park, Hanover, Mendham Borough, Mendham Township and Morris Plains. 

She said residents of those communities may also recycle cardboard packaging used for 6-packs, 12-packs or larger of soda or beer; boxes/cartons for liquid or frozen food such as soup boxes, drink boxes and milk/juice cartons; and plastic containers, both bottles and non-bottles, that are coded # 1 PETE, # 2 HDPE, # 4 LDPE, # 5 PP and # 7 OTHER. The numbers for the plastic containers are found inside the triangular recycling symbol that is stamped 
on the bottom of plastic containers.

“It is also important to note that plastic items coded #3 V or #6 PS are not to be put into the curbside recycling bin,” Jones said. “They should be put into the trash.”

In the municipalities in which the MCMUA collects recyclables at curbside, the recycling containers are to be at curbside the night before the collection day, and the maximum weight of a curbside recycling container and its contents is 50 pounds, Hourihan said.

Both Jones and Hourihan urged all Morris County residents to continue to recycle aluminum cans, steel cans, glass bottles and jars, plastic bottles coded # 1 and # 2, corrugated cardboard, chipboard, junk mail, magazines and newspapers.

More information about recycling in Morris County is available online on the Morris County MUA website, www.mcmua.com.