The health inspector for Latah County came by the other day, which she does on a regular basis. And once again, we got a high rating for cleanliness, which didn’t surprise me but is still good to know. However, this time her eye lit upon our glass recycling program. Not the new one, where you pay a deposit for a sterilized container that we fill with deli food for you to take home and enjoy. No, this time it was our old glass jar recycling program.

You may recall a year or so ago we were told we could no longer put out clean, recycled plastic containers for reuse. Thus we switched to glass. Now it turns out that won’t work either. So what is the story?

Apparently, the code is pretty specific about what can and cannot be reused in a grocery store, and it has to do with the manufacturers’ intended use. If the container was intended to be used once, like pickle or salsa jars, then we cannot legally reuse that item at the Co-op. This list includes the following single-use items: aluminum food containers, jars, plastic buckets, barrels, cans, food wrappers, etc.

This is all about food safety and ensuring that your food is not contaminated, which is good. However, it is still frustrating to many of us that this code, designed to protect us, at the same time doesn’t allow us to keep more containers out of the waste stream. You can still reuse your own containers. You can’t, however, drop off your old containers anymore or pick up a clean jar to reuse here at the Co-op. Sorry, that’s just the way it is.