Followup: City of Richardson Recycling

After yesterday's post about my disappointment with the recycling program here in Richardson, a few friends who also live in Richardson sent me some additional information on the recycling program. It turns out, we CAN recycle paper and cardboard!

Right here on the Richardson web site it says so.

Thing thing that was confusing me was this message printed on all the blue recycling bags we were given:

In case the picture is not very readable, it says:

Please use this bag for:

• aluminum cans
• ferrous metal cans (tin, steel)
• plastics (#1-5 & 7)
• glass (clear, brown, green)

In fact, according to the City of Richardson web site they actually accept:

The items below can all be placed in the blue bags:
Plastics #1-5 and #7, Aluminum, Tin, Steel, Empty Aerosol Cans, Newspapers, Mixed Paper, Paper Grocery Bags, Magazines, Catalogs, Corrugated Cardboard, Paperboard/Chipboard, Phone Books, Junk Mail, Glass Containers (All Color Glass)

Do you see how confusing this is?

I can easily go on a tirade about how so many cities spend money on recycling programs and then bemoan the fact that their citizens either don't take advantage of the services or use them incorrectly. Which is indeed a problem, but is there any question why that might be? Maybe a little correct information would help...

Thanks so much to my friends/readers who helped me out with this!! I am gonna have a big ol' bag of cardboard and paper this next week for pickup!