Preparing your containers to be acceptable for recycling

To be acceptable for recycling, plastic crop protection product containers must be empty, clean, uncapped, and dry. Follow this checklist to make sure your containers are acceptable, then compare them with the samples here. To prepare your containers, see our proper rinsing techniques. 

• Empty: Plastic containers must be empty to be recycled.
• Clean: Pressure of triple-rinse the container as soon as it is emptied. Container must be cleaned or they will not be accepted into the recycling program.
• Inspect: Immediately after rinsing the container, look inside and make sure that all the formulation has been rinsed out. Also inspect the outside of the container; particularly check that the pour spout, the spout threads, and the container wall surrounding the spout are free of formulation residues that flake, smear, or come off on a glove when touched. We cannot process containers that have dried formulation in or on them.
• Discard Cap: Caps are usually made of a different kind of plastic and cannot be recycled. Be sure to clean the cap at the time the container is rinsed. Never put a cap back on a cleaned container. Dispose of the cleaned caps as normal solid waste.
• Keep Containers  Dry: Cleaned containers must be kept out of the rain and away from the rain water. Store cleaned containers in a roofed building, an enclosed trailer, or in plastic bags.
• Labels: Please Remove the instruction booklets.
• Stains: Containers that originally held products known to stain plastic are acceptable for recycling if the plastic is stained but otherwise clean.

For more information visit  USAg Recycling