Plastic bag recycling made easier in Sonoma County

All Sonoma County residents now can recycle plastic bags in their curbside recycling bins along with the usual bottles, cans, newspapers and cardboard.

North Bay Corp., which handles 90 percent of trash collection in the county, said Wednesday it was expanding its recycling program immediately.

Plastic bags used by grocery and department stores have been a such a long-standing problem, littering creeks and clogging drains, that some cities have been considering banning them.

Under the new program, North Bay customers should put all of their bags in one bag and then put that in their recycling bin to keep the bags clean and making the sorting easier.

The program will be reviewed after six months and cities and county will be asked if it should be continued or if plastic bags should be recycled another way, said Sadonna Cody, North Bay’s director of governmental affairs.

The announcement of the plastic bag recycling program coincides with discussions by the Sonoma County Waste Management Agency and the county’s Mayors and Councilmembers Association on the need to recycle or even ban plastics.

Cody said that since January North Bay has had a plastic bag pilot program in place, handling the bags from Green Waste, Petaluma’s trash hauler, and the bags that people have been putting in the recycling bin anyway.

A method to remove the bags through hand-sorting was developed at North Bay’s recycling centers, and the company also has been able to find manufacturers who will take the plastic bags.

Plastic bags also can be returned to stores.

North Bay serves 150,000 residences and businesses in Sonoma County, except for Sonoma and Petaluma.

A plastic bag recycling program already is in place in Petaluma. Sonoma Garbage, which serves Sonoma, contracts with North Bay to handle recyclable material and said it also will recycle plastic bags.

You can reach Staff Writer Bob Norberg at bob.norberg@pressdemocrat.com.