Plastic Recycling
Merrick’s Plastic Recycling program provides meaningful work 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 general public at our Vadnais Heights site.
Accepted vs. Unaccepted Materials
If you’re wondering whether our plastic recycling services can accept a specific material please see below. In summary, if the material does not stretch and you cannot poke your finger through it, we cannot recycle it. Moreover, we do not accept hard or crinkly material. A majority of what we recycle is #2 and #4 material. Lastly, all plastic must be clean, dry, and free of food residue.
Accepted Materials
We accept all colors of the following materials:
- Bread bags
- Carpet overwrap
- Case overwrap
- Cereal/pasta bags
- Dry cleaning bags
- Furniture foam wrap
- Garbage bags/liners
- Grocery/retail bags
- Heat sheets
- Ice bags
- Mattress bags
- Newspaper sleeves
- Non-paper bubble mailers/other plastic mailers
- Packaging air pillows
- Pallet wrap/stretch film
- Produce bags
- Product wrap
- Salt bags
- Toilet paper/paper towel/water bottle wrapping
- Wood pellet bags
- Ziploc/other resealable food storage bags
Unaccepted Materials
We do not accept the following materials:
- Adhesives
- Aluminum/metallic-lined packaging (e.g. chip bags/candy wrappers)
- Biodegradable/compostable bags
- Bubble wrap
- Film packaging
- Freight/shipping air sacs
- Frozen food bags
- Hard plastic (e.g. water bottles)
- Material containing nylon (has grid-like appearance e.g. pet food bags)
- Metal
- Organic material (e.g. paper/cardboard)
- Pallet strapping
- Pre-washed salad mix bags
- Rubber
- Six-pack rings
- Sticker backing
- Wet material
Next Steps
Businesses and individuals interested in utilizing our plastic recycling services should contact Assistant Operations Director Marissa Jenson at (651) 789-6218 or marissaj@merrickinc.org. Inquiries regarding services may also be submitted online via our Plastic Recycling Form.
