Recycling
PDF Acceptable Items
Rusk County participates in Single-Sort Recycling. This means that all of our acceptable recyclable items can be placed in one container or bin. We hope that this will be easier for you and will increase your recycling efforts. Please remember to rinse out your bottles and containers. The City of Ladysmith remains on dual sort recycling and will pick up paper and cardboard one week and the food metal, aluminum, plastic and glass the following week.
Acceptable Items
The Rusk County Recycling Program accepts the following items for recycling:
- Corrugated Cardboard (flattened)
- Paperboard (cereal, cake, pop/beer cases, empty toilet paper & paper towel rolls) but No refrigerated or freezer items
- Brown paper bags
- Magazines, Catalogs & Newspapers
- Office Paper, Envelopes and Junk Mail
- Milk, Juice, Broth & Soup Cartons (EMPTY - discard cap)
- Phone & Paperback books (don’t need to remove cover)
- Aluminum Cans, Aluminum Foil (crush into ball) and Pie Tins (clean)
- Glass Bottles and Jars any # 1-7
- Plastic Containers, Tubs & Lids any number 1-7 - except PS#6
- Plastic souvenir cups
- Plastic Hanging/Potted plant Containers any # 1-7 but NO plastic trays
- Steel Food Metal Cans and holiday tins (popcorn, candy, spices)
- Empty Aerosol Cans (discard caps)
Click here for a more in-depth list. ACCEPTABLE ITEMS (PDF)
Preparation
- Rinse out cans, bottles and jars.
- Caps can be left on but please flatten larger items first and make sure there is no liquid in them.
- You no longer need to remove labels.
- Break down large items to maximize space (no greater than 3’ x 3’).
Not-Acceptable Items
- Plastic Bags, Plastic Wrap or film
- Ceramic, Porcelain, or Crystal Glass
- Food Waste & Food-tainted paper
- Styrofoam Cups & Containers & Peanuts
- Napkins, Tissues, Paper Towels
- Hazardous waste containers (motor oil)
- Bio-hazardous waste including needles & syringes
Where does our recycling go?
Our recycling gets taken to Recycle America in Minnesota. Recycle America uses a variety of sorting devices including screens, magnets and ultraviolet optical scanners that trigger blasts of air to separate plastic bottles from the rest of the items; as well as spinning, star-shaped plastic devices that separate newspaper from cans and bottles by pushing the paper higher up an inclined screen so the heavier, smaller cans and bottles tumble down to a lower level. Glass is sorted by color and crushed, while plastic is shredded into small chips. Watch a video of the Germantown, WI Materials Recovery Facility that is very similar to the facility at Recycle America.