SANTA CRUZ >> For community members curious about where their recycling ends up after it’s picked up by collectors, the city of Santa Cruz is offering free tours of its Resource Recovery Facility and Recycling Center every Friday until late August.

The educational tours began earlier this month and will continue each Friday until Aug. 22, with tours at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. at the Resource Recovery Facility on the outskirts of the city.

During the 90-minute tours, community members can see and smell what happens to the roughly 30 to 50 tons of waste material that Santa Cruz residents throw in their recycling bins daily. Tour participants will learn the new food scraps processing program and how it reduces methane emissions from the landfill, and about “wish-cycling” or tossing questionable items into the bin that don’t actually belong there.

“Did you know that for recycling to be effective, there are actually five requirements that need to be in place? Materials need to be designed for recyclability, there must be access and participation, appropriate infrastructure needs to be in place and lastly, there has to be a strong end market,” said Santa Cruz Waste Reduction Assistant Caylie Soon. “Come join the city of Santa Cruz Waste Reduction staff to learn how the city is addressing these different components of recycling.”

The city welcomes families, friend groups and individuals, but each tour is limited to 20 people and registration is required to participate. Children must be at least 8 years old to participate and youth ages 8 to 18 must be accompanied by an adult. Parking at the facility is limited and carpooling is encouraged.

Outside of learning the ins and outs of the recycling process, community members will hear about ways to avoid creating waste in the first place, including storing a lunch for work in a reusable container, using a reusable container for hot bar or bulk grocery items and utilizing reusable coffee mugs and water bottles. For those who find the use of reusable containers difficult, choosing products packaged in materials that are compostable or recyclable is the next best thing. However, that can also be difficult to determine when the presence of the three-arrow recycling symbol on packaging doesn’t always mean it is recyclable at the city’s facility.

According to the city’s website, a number of items end up in the blue bins but are not exactly recyclable, such as to-go food boxes, pizza boxes, waxed or plastic-coated cardboard, paper plates, paper cups, paper towels, napkins and milk cartons. In fact, any item with food remnants is considered garbage and should not be placed in blue bins. Another common misconception is that recycling should be contained inside a plastic or paper bag in the bin, which is incorrect. All items should be loose in the blue bins.

To determine if a plastic item is actually recyclable in the city, Soon uses a memorable ditty, “If it’s a plastic bottle, jar, jug or a tub — shape, and it’s clean, then it’s OK to go into the blue container.”

To make tour reservations, visit cityofsantacruz.com/tours.