SPOKANE, Wash. — Friday is America Recycles Day and Spokane offers a few options on where top drop of recyclable items.
Every year on Nov. 15, millions of Americans recycle and raise awareness about recycling and buying items made of recycled products.
Places like Earthworks Recycling on East Broadway Avenue in Spokane is one of the places where people can drop off recyclable items.
All things metal, cardboard and paper are accepted Earthworks. Plastic bottles are a go as long as they're rinsed out. You can even find chimes from the oldest church in Spokane coming through the facility to be reused.
“We encourage everyone to have it sorted when it comes in unlike your blue bins where you mix everything together. Throw glass in and it's all churned up and mixed together,” said Jim Schrock with Earthworks Recycling.
Glass bottles and jars are not accepted. Schrock said because glass is a sand substitute, it's more expensive to break down.
There isn't a location in Spokane County to dump glass, but that doesn't mean you have to stop placing it in your curbside bin. Once it gets to the recycling plant, it gets separated from the reusable material.
“When we first started taking glass in the 80s, we actually paid two cents a pound for it. Then it's kind of gone downhill since then where we actually charged ten cents a pound to take it and even that outlet dried up,” Schrock said.
Electronics such as TVs are accepted as well as wood waste.
Other recycling centers in the Spokane area include places like Pacific Steel and Recycling, Spokane Recycling Products, DU-Mor Recycling and American Recycling Corporation. The city of Spokane and Spokane County also offer recycling programs.