Soiled diapers.

Needles.

Biohazards.

The problems officials face at the Alpena Resource Recovery Facility and other recycling outlets go beyond sorting out the wrong kinds of plastic or the glass the facilities can’t accept.

Area residents are treating the recycling bins like garbage dumps, either because they aren’t aware of the proper way to recycle or because they don’t care.

Either way, it has to change.

Most importantly, the problems can be dangerous. Resource Recovery Facility employees have been forced to go to the hospital recently after being stuck with used medical needles.

But also important: The more time recycling officials have to spend sorting through their collections to pull out what can’t be recycled, the less efficient and more expensive the whole process becomes, endangering the very future of recycling in Northeast Michigan.

So please, dear readers, take the time to educate yourself on how to properly recycle. Visit https://www.alpena.mi.us/quick–links/alpena–resource–recovery/index.php or RecyclingRaccoons.com for information. Encourage your friends and neighbors to do the same.

If you’re dumping trash in the recycling bins, stop it. If you’re aware of someone else doing so, call them out.

We have to get this right, folks. It’s important for our planet and our communities.

(THE ALPENA NEWS)