Darke County Solid Waste District...
Reduce, reuse, reeducate: Contamination hurts recycling 

Consider this: a construction contractor finishes a job siding a house. It’s time to dispose of the vinyl siding scrap. He could throw it in the trash can, but he opts for the recycling bin — to do otherwise would be to waste plastic, right? 

Wrong. He’s just contaminated the whole recycling bin, and now it’s destined for the garbage. 

In Darke County, vinyl siding falls into the non-recyclable category.  Even though vinyl siding is plastic, bears the recycling chasing arrows symbol and, is marked as it is with recycling labels, it practically begs to be recycled. 

At this time, Rumpke can only recycle two types of plastic containers —“type one” or “type two,” as indicated by the tiny number at the center of each recycling symbol.  For a complete list of items accepted by Rumpke in the recycling bins, visit the Darke County Solid Waste District website at :  http://www.co.darke.oh.us/solidwaste/whatcanberecycled.html or call the district office at 937-547-0827 to have a copy mailed to you. 

Unfortunately, not all county residents have a grasp on the guidelines, and it only takes one non-recyclable item to spoil a whole bin of recyclables.  That one non-recyclable item could force the hauler to have to treat the entire load as trash.  Getting rid of contaminated recycling bags costs the Darke County Solid Waste District and jeopardizes future recycling programs. 

Due to contamination in recycling bins, the bins in Pitsburg have been removed.  Recently found in the recycling bin has been the frame of a couch, bags of trash, pieces of wood and non-recyclable plastics.  If you have a question about whether or not something can be recycled, call the Darke County Solid Waste District at 937-547-0827. 

If you are caught placing trash or non-recyclable materials in one of the district’s recycling bins, you are in violation of the following Ohio Revised Code Laws and their penalties and could be prosecuted: 

2913.02 Theft. 

(A) No person, with purpose to deprive the owner of property or services, shall knowingly obtain or exert control over either the property or services in any of the following ways: 

(1) Without the consent of the owner or person authorized to give consent; (2) Beyond the scope of the express or implied consent of the owner or person authorized to give consent; (3) By deception; (4) By threat; (5) By intimidation 

(B)(1) Whoever violates this section is guilty of theft. 

2913.02 Penalty 

(2) Except as otherwise provided in this division or division (B)(3), (4), (5), (6), (7), or (8) of this section, a violation of this section is petty theft, a misdemeanor of the first degree--punishable by $1,000 fine and/or 60 days in jail.