HUDSON – Aspirational recyclers are people who “hope” a material is recyclable and put it in the blue bin or recycling dumpster. “It’s made of plastic, there must be some way to recycle this!” they think. In an effort to counteract this, to make Columbia County recyclables as valuable on the market as they can be, the county Solid Waste Department, has published a new recycling chart, listing which clean materials can be recycled, or not.

In an accompanying memo, Solid Waste director Jolene Race wrote, “A number of actions taken by China over the past months have begun to impact the recycling markets. The new proposed standard quality limit is far more stringent than any existing international standard. Our goal moving forward is to ensure the highest quality material that could be marketed, domestically and internationally. Columbia County is working with the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation and our vendor Casella Recycling to assist in educating residents about recycling.”

Questions can be directed to the Solid Waste Administrative Office, 518 828-2737.