Richard Moody in Columbia-Greene Media reports that Columbia County is the latest local municipality doing less recycling. The Columbia County Solid Waste Department sent out a letter Aug. 10 to town supervisors telling them the department will further limit what it will accept for recycling. Columbia County signed a new recycling contract Aug. 1 with Casella Recycling. “The new protocols are about the same as they were before,” Columbia County Solid Waste Director Jolene Race said. “We are trying to clean up the stream as much as possible to make the materials more marketable both domestically and internationally.” Now Casella won't take items with plastic coating or wax-coated paper. China, the country that had accepted the largest amount of recycling materials, won't take plastic or paper, and now localities are reacting. Currently, Columbia County collects about 2,600 tons of paper, plastic, and glass each year and Greene County picks up 3,000 tons of recyclable material. “This is not just Columbia County and it isn’t just in New York, it is all over the U.S.,” Race said. “Everybody is starting to charge for recycling.” Read the full story in Columbia-Greene Media.