Back to News and Events Menu

NEWS RELEASE

November 7, 2008

Media Contacts:

Howard County Promotes Recycling of Election Season Materials

ELLICOTT CITY, MD – Howard County Executive Ken Ulman announced today the County’s Bureau of Environmental Services is offering new ways for residents to recycle their election advertising materials now that the election season is over.

All plastic-film type signs are now recyclable. These signs should be treated as plastic bags—therefore they can be stuffed into other plastic bags and tied shut. (As of October of this year, plastic bags filled with clean, empty plastic bags are now recyclable in Howard County.) Bags of plastic bags are also recyclable in the single-stream compactors at the Alpha Ridge landfill.

In addition, wire yard sign hangers are recyclable in curbside bins. This is a departure from the County’s normal rules on wire products and is only currently applicable to wire yard-sign hangers and not other wire products. Residents are asked to not place wire yard signs in the scrap metal area at the Alpha Ridge Landfill. If residents need to bring wire yard hangers to the landfill they are to place them in the single-stream recycling compactors, but not in the scrap metal area.

Wooden stakes that were used to hold up larger political signs may be recycled in the wood waste area of the landfill; they are to be added to the pallet area and not the yard waste area. As usual, all paper and cardboard signs and leaflets may be recycled. However, signs that have been laminated are not recyclable.

For more information about the County’s recycling program, visit the Bureau of Environmental Services’ webpage at www.howardcountyrecycles.org or call them at (410) 313-6444.