If you live in Sioux Falls, you’ve probably heard this before: Keep recyclables loose—don’t bag them.
It’s one of the most common rules in recycling, and also one of the most questioned.
So why does it matter?
Since 2019, Sioux Falls residents have been asked to keep bags out of their recycling bins—and every so often, that rule still sparks questions. The truth is, this isn’t just a local preference. It’s how recycling systems are designed to work across the country.
Recycling Works Differently Than Most People Think
When you place items in your recycling cart, they don’t stay together. At the recycling facility, materials move through a series of equipment designed to separate individual items—paper from containers, cardboard from glass, aluminum from plastic.
That system works really well when materials are loose.
Where it starts to break down is when everything is tied up inside a bag.
What Happens When Bags Go in the Bin
Plastic bags and film don’t move through the system like other recyclables.
Instead, they:
- Wrap around sorting equipment and bring operations to a halt
- Require staff to stop and cut them out by hand
- Are labor-intensive since equipment can’t sort or open them
- Tangle with paper and cardboard, lowering quality
- Slow down the process and increase costs
- Don’t have viable recycling markets once they’ve been mixed with other materials
Even one bag can cause issues—but when they show up consistently, it adds up fast.
Why We Ask for Everything to Be Loose
A common question is: why not just open the bags at the facility? At a smaller scale, that might sound simple. But at the volume we process, it would mean opening thousands of bags by hand every day.
Like many industries, recycling facilities and waste haulers are already working through staffing challenges, with teams focused on keeping essential parts of the operation running. Adding a separate process just to open bags isn’t practical.
There are machines designed to open bags, but they’re not a good fit for single-stream recycling. They’re costly, not always accurate, and can create more contamination or damage materials in the process. At Millennium, we don’t have public funding to support that kind of investment—especially when it doesn’t deliver a reliable return.
Because of that, the most effective approach—and the one used across the country—is simple: Keep recyclables loose from the start.
This Isn’t Just a Local Rule
This isn’t something unique to Sioux Falls. A recent report from the Alliance for Mission-Based Recycling (AMBR) reinforces what facilities across the country are seeing: flexible plastics like bags and film were never designed for curbside recycling systems.
They’re one of the fastest-growing types of packaging, but they don’t have strong end markets and can contaminate higher-value materials like paper and cardboard.
Across the U.S., only about 2% of these materials are actually recycled—and most of that happens through store drop-off programs, not curbside bins. So when we ask residents to keep bags out, we’re not creating our own rules—we’re aligning with how modern recycling systems are designed to work.
The One Exception: Shredded Paper
There is one exception locally: shredded paper.
In our region, there’s a strong demand for paper shredding and a reliable reuse market for that material, which is why we include it in the program. Because shredded paper is so small and lightweight, it can’t be sorted properly on its own. It falls through the system and mixes with other materials.
To keep it contained:
- Place shredded paper in a clear plastic bag
- Tie it closed
Our bag robots are trained to recognize these types of bags and leave them in the system for our team to then remove safely so the paper can be recovered.
What To Do Instead
To keep recycling working the way it should:
- Place items loose in your cart
- Use a bin or paper bag at home, then empty it into your cart
- Take plastic bags and film (like grocery bags and wrappers) to store drop-off locations
- Only bag shredded paper
Why It Matters
Recycling works when everyone puts the right things in the bin. At Millennium, less than 5% of what we receive goes to landfill — far below the national average — because our community works hard to recycle right. Keeping plastic bags out helps protect that progress.
The bottom line: Plastic bags aren’t recyclable in your bin anywhere in the country — not just Sioux Falls. Keeping them out isn’t us trying to add new rules to the program, it’s protecting it.
To see what’s accepted and find local drop-off options, visit MillenniumRecycling.com/singlestream— or, better yet, search the free BINfluencer app to know where it goes and find local options for all things recyclable or not!
Have a Recycling Question? Contact Us!