Plastic Bags and Film Recycling

The City of Middletown is participating in the CT WRAP initiative to increase the plastic recycling options available to residents. With this program residents will be able to recycle plastic bags and film that are not allowed in curbside recycling bins. These items include: 

• Plastic wrap on items such as bottled water, paper towels, toilet paper
• Bubble wrap and Air Pillows 
• Plastic shipping envelopes (paper labels removed) 
• Plastic baggies (clean and dry)
• Bread bags
• Newspaper bags
• Dry cleaning bags 
• Plastic grocery bags

These items can be brought back to area stores, such as Price Chopper and Stop and Shop,  for recycling.  These items can also be brought to Middletown City Hall, second floor for recycling.   These items should NOT go in curbside recycling carts.   But, combined with existing curbside recycling, residents can divert much of their plastic waste from garbage to recycling.  For a full list of locations, please check out the Plastic Film Recycling Website.

Middletown is proud to join communities around the country and in Canada in the Wrap Recycling Action Program (WRAP), which expands the kinds of plastic residents can recycle at local retail grocery and home improvement stores to include plastic bags, plastic wraps like bread bags, bubble wrap, newspaper bags, overwrap around household products, case wrap around beverages  and other household items, as well as dry cleaning bags and other plastic wraps or films.

It is important to remember that this type of plastic, bags and film, do not belong in the curbside recycling.  Curbside recycling can only accept plastic containers, not film.   The bags and film get clogged in the sorting machinery, causing costly shutdowns and delays.   Bags have to be manually removed from all the equipment and then thrown away.