The Public Works Department urges residents to take the time to read and implement the guidelines on the flyers that will be attached to their recycling bins after their waste is collected beginning next week. Due to changing markets, the costs of disposing of contaminated recyclables is rising, and Biddeford is launching an educational campaign to keep recycling costs down.

Biddeford’s curbside recycling program only accepts corrugated cardboard, boxboard, mixed paper, rigid plastic containers, metal and food cans, and glass bottles. Although the list of accepted materials has not changed since the program was first implemented in 2013, contamination rates have been on the rise.

Much of the cause of recycling contamination is “wishful recycling”, or when residents hope that their waste can be recycled and put it in the recycling bin just in case. The flyers that will be distributed by the Public Works Department restate which materials are recyclable and which are not to remind residents which bin their waste belongs in.