The following contains the exact language (italicized) currently found in a standard commercial Waste Management contract specifically related to recycling services. In addition to excerpts from the contractual agreement, we will follow up with a plain-language interpretation.
Without limiting the foregoing, Customer shall pay a contamination charge for additional handling, processing, transporting and/or disposing of such non-conforming Recyclable Materials, Special Waste, Excluded Materials, and/or all of part of non-conforming loads and additional charges may be assessed for bulky items such as appliances, concrete, furniture, mattresses, tires, electronics, pallets, yard waste, propane tanks, etc. [Plain English: See Recycling contract language series vol 5. To reiterate, if you put garbage into the recycling bin, the hauler will consider all of the material in that bin contaminated and most likely will attached a recycling contamination fee to your next invoice. These fees range from a few dollars up to $250! Bottom line, be sure what you are recycling is clean. It’s hard to argue with this language. The waste hauler will incur higher costs to separate trash from the recycling material and therefore will pass on these costs to their customers.]