Are you throwing those hard-to-recycle clamshell containers in the trash? Not so fast
When Whatcom County residents learned recently that trash and recycling hauler Sanitary Service Co. wasn’t accepting clamshell containers anymore, the folks at Ridwell, a waste reduction and recycling company, started getting phone calls.
Ridwell is a private recycling service that’s designed as a bridge between curbside recycling and the trash can, the company’s West Coast regional director told The Herald. Ridwell accepts hard-to-recycle items such as plastic film, batteries and light bulbs, political signs, pet collars and clothing — finding companies that will reuse those items or turn them into new consumer products.
In an interview at Ridwell’s warehouse in the Cornwall Park neighborhood, Taylor Loewen said that most clamshells are made of lightweight clear plastic called No. 1 PETE, which is recyclable.
Those containers, which are often used for fruits and berries from companies like Driscoll’s and Organic Girl, and sometimes for restaurant takeout, but they are prone to gathering dirt when they go into a single bin with cans, bottles and other plastics, Loewen said. So many recyclers don’t want them.
“(Clamshells) are technically recyclable. It’s just that there’s no end product” for the ones made of black plastic to be made into, Loewen said.
Ridwell, however, has agreements with K&S Recycling and Recology, who will take clean clear clamshells from Ridwell customers and process them into food-grade plastics, Loewen said.
“This process leaves a minimal carbon footprint and helps create a circular world by turning recycled clamshells into new clamshells over and over, instead of winding up in our landfills, or worse ... in the oceans, lakes, and rivers,” Ridwell says at its website.
This story was originally published January 27, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
