I am becoming very disheartened and disillusioned with recycling in Summit County. We have been recycling since Tim McClure started the program in the ’70s. When my kids were in college in the late ’80s and early ’90s, they brought their recycling home because they couldn’t recycle at school. I understand the cuts and changes to recycling because of money and the limited places to take it.

I don’t understand how day after day people are contaminating the recycling bins, when there are signs everywhere and weekly articles about recycling in Summit County. I just got back from recycling in Dillon. Every single bin was contaminated, as it is every time I go there. In the newspaper bin, there were paper bags, plastic bags, cardboard and even a waxed milk carton, even though that bin is clearly marked “no paper bags, plastic bags or cardboard.” In the plastic bin, there are hundreds of items that aren’t recyclable in Summit County: clam shells, hard plastic, etc. I am not sure I want to continue recycling because I feel like most of this stuff can’t be sorted out, and it’s going to the landfill anyway. Please educate yourselves and do a better job. It’s better to not recycle at all if the load is being contaminated. Also, I don’t understand single-stream recycling. Where the heck does that go?