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recycling crew wearing orange safety vests

Plastic Recycling

Merrick’s Plastic Recycling Program provides meaningful employment for 28 clients while diverting nearly 1 million pounds of plastic from local incinerators and landfills every year. We contract with businesses for regular pick-ups and accept plastic from the public at our 3210 program site. For more information about plastic recycling, please contact Marissa Jenson at (651) 789-6218 or MarissaJ@MerrickInc.org. You may also complete our Plastic Recycling Form.

All plastic must be clean, dry, and free of food residue.

We accept all colors of:

  • Pallet wrap & stretch film
  • Case overwrap
  • Product wrap
  • Garbage bags/liners
  • Toilet paper/paper towel/water bottle wrapping
  • Salt bags
  • Ice bags
  • Bubble wrap & packaging air pillows
  • Non-paper bubble mailers & other plastic mailers
  • Grocery/retail bags
  • Ziploc & other resealable food storage bags
  • Bread bags
  • Cereal/pasta bags
  • Dry cleaning bags
  • Newspaper sleeves
  • Produce bags
  • Carpet overwrap
  • Furniture foam wrap
  • Heat sheets
  • Mattress bags
  • Wood pellet bags

We can’t accept:

  • Wet material
  • Hard plastic (e.g. water bottles)
  • Pallet strapping
  • Freight/shipping air sacs
  • Material containing nylon (sometimes looks like a grid in the plastic-common in pet food bags & freight/shipping air sacs)
  • Biodegradable/compostable bags or film packaging
  • Adhesives
  • Sticker backing
  • Organic material (including paper & cardboard)
  • Frozen food bags
  • Pre-washed salad mix bags
  • Six-pack rings
  • Aluminum-lined and/or metallic-looking packaging (e.g. Chip bags & candy bar wrappers)
  • Rubber
  • Metal

Please remember that if material doesn’t stretch and you cannot poke your finger through it, we cannot recycle it. We do not accept hard or crinkly material. A majority of what we recycle is #2 and #4 material.

jz loadingdock

Plastic Recycling

Let Merrick recycle your plastic instead of sending it to landfills!

Benefits of working with us

  • Save money on disposal costs.
  • You can drop off your plastic at Merrick’s warehouse or we can schedule weekday pick-ups at your location.
  • The value of material and the cost of transport can be claimed as a charitable contribution.

 Community & Environmental Impact:

jz loadingdock
JZ, a client, helps unload an incoming haul of plastic to recycle

  • Keep tons of polyethylene out of the landfills and incinerators.
  • Reuse the polymer to make a useful product – composite lumber.
  • Steady and meaningful work for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities.

Partnership Matters:

  • Merrick is looking for businesses that want to recycle plastic bags, stretch wrap from pallets, and shrink wrap from case goods instead of sending this material to landfills.
  • We have several collection crews picking up this material at sites all over the Twin Cities Metro Area.
  • We have work crews sorting and bailing the material at our facility with the capacity to process more material.
  • We partner with Trex Company who make composite lumber for decking out of recycled plastic and in May of 2013 sent the 200th truckload! View the commemorative poster here.

 Background

  • The plastic bag and stretch film recycling program was established in 2003. Since then, we have kept millions of pounds of plastic from ending up in landfills and incinerators.
  • Merrick, Inc., is a nonprofit agency that supports adults with developmental disabilities in finding work opportunities. We are continually seeking to expand our green endeavors and partnerships.

Please recycle these materials (all materials must be clean and dry):

    • HDPE, LDPE, LLDPE films. #2, #4
    • Plastic grocery and retail bags (remove any string ties or rigid handles)
    • Bread bags (shake out crumbs)
    • Produce bags (clean and dry)
    • Cereal bags (shake out)
    • Zip lock bags (clean and dry, remove any rigid sliders)
    • Ice bags (dry)
    • Salt bags (turn inside out and shake out residue, remove any rigid handles)
    • Bags from lawn products and bird seed (turn inside out and shake out residue)
    • Dry cleaning bags
    • Newspaper sleeves (clean and dry)
    • Tyvek® envelopes
    • Mattress bags
    • Furniture wrap
    • Bubble wrap
    • Plastic overwrap from case goods
    • Stretch film/pallet wrap

 For more information please contact:

Marissa Jenson at 651-789-6218 or MarissaJ@MerrickInc.org 

or

Andy Rausch: 651-789-6211 or AndyR@MerrickInc.org

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