Some Madison residents could find curbside recycling a bit more confusing. The city's adding to the list of containers to keep out of those green carts.

Recycling is 71-billion dollar industry nationwide. But demand is higher for some materials than others, which is why Madison's no longer collecting some plastic containers.

"We try to recycle everything we can," Diana Cohen says.
And, on average, Madison recycles 21-thousand tons of aluminum cans... paper and plastics. The list is long, but the city's now putting the lid on accepting some plastic containers.
"We're no longer going to be able to recycle dairy tubs," the city's recycling coordinator says.
"It's pretty disappointing. If it's going to be sold at stores, it should be recycled," Cohen says.
Butter or margarine, yogurt and various cheese products -- all come in dairy tubs. George Dreckmann, Madison's Recycling Coordinator, says demand is high for bottles but low for this type of plastic.
"We were taking those with a number two or five on the bottom, but the market has just dried up and we can't find anybody who can use them," Dreckmann says.
He says overall, the program is healthy...with the city getting about 10-dollars more per ton for materials than last year. Dreckmann says most of the 21-thousand tons recycled is paper.
"Plastic accounted for one-thousand and 40 tons of that 21-thousand, and I would be surprised if there were more than 20-25 tons of these dairy tubs in there," he says.
Dreckmann recommends people try to re-use the tubs, or throw them in the trash, because mistakenly trying to toss them for recycling is like throwing money away.
More than eight percent of what's found in these green carts cannot be recycled and goes to a landfill, costing about 89-thousand dollars a year.
"But, if people help us out and not put these in, it will be saving tax dollars," Dreckmann says.
If you still want to recycle your dairy tubs, you can bring them to the Madison Recycling Center on Fish Hatchery Road. But, a spokesperson for the company that operates the center says people need to clean the tubs thoroughly.