Boise, Idaho, to Launch Hefty EnergyBag Program

In January, the city of Boise, Idaho, was awarded a $50,000 grant from Dow Packaging and Specialty Plastic and Keep America Beautiful to establish the Hefty EnergyBag grant program in its communities, expand its recycling efforts and find a new home for materials no longer accepted by China. And now, the city is gearing up for the launch of the program.

To get the program off the ground, residents with recycling services will receive a home reference guide, detailed instructions about the program and a year’s supply of Hefty EnergyBag orange bags to fill with materials that do not fit under the standard recycling category, such as hard-to-recycle plastics like food packaging and pouches, foam products and plastic bags.

Once the orange bags are filled, they can be placed at the curb to be picked up on regular recycling collection days. After the bags are picked up, they will be transported to a facility owned by Renewlogy, where the materials will be turned into synthetic diesel fuel.

“This new program demonstrates the commitment of the city of Boise to seek out local and regional solutions and reuse and recover more of the waste we generate, keeping more out of the landfill,” said Boise Mayor David Bieter in a statement. “Sustainability in Boise is something we work at every day. We know there is a lot of work to be done in responsibly managing what we generate in our homes, and this is a big step towards that end.”

In addition to the implementation of the new program, the city is making some changes to its regular recycling program. Loose milk jugs, laundry detergent tubs and soda/juice bottles are now the only plastic items that can be placed in blue recycling carts, and all plastic water bottles and plastic hinged-lid (clamshell) containers must now be placed in garbage carts.

To find out more about the changes, residents can attend open houses held at local libraries throughout the months of April and May.