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Summit County — Local officials said Tuesday that they will abandon efforts to recycle many common types of plastic beginning June 1.

The recommendation by High Country Conservation director Carly Wier was made after staff at the material recovery center found that recycling things such as yogurt and butter containers is not cost effective.

The county will continue to recycle certain kinds of plastic, mostly milk jugs and soda bottles - but no more yogurt and butter cups, ketchup bottles or Tupperware. Plastics numbers 3 through 7 often are contaminated and more expensive to process, local recycling experts explained at a county commissioner work session Tuesday.

Most of those materials are sent to China for processing, which calls into question the fundamental environmental basis for recycling. Those plastics make up less than 1 percent of the county's total recycling stream by weight.

All types of plastic together comprise about 4 percent of the total recycling stream by weight.

"We understand the outcry from the community is going to be fairly livid. : There is a compelling argument to do what we're doing," recycling expert Kevin Berg said. "There's no market, there's no place for it to go. We're struggling with what the community expects and is demanding."

Berg set his presentation against a backdrop of encouraging overall Summit recycling numbers, with a relatively high total diversion rate. Even during a tough economy, the local recycling operation is holding its own and finding markets for most products. But prices for the commodities have dropped steeply, and Berg said there's only the slightest hint of a bounce back.

Yogurt revolt?

The decision elicited a simultaneous outcry from County Commissioner Karn Stiegelmeier and county manager Gary Martinez.

"What? No way," the pair said at nearly the same time. Dumping part of the recycling program that has been painstakingly built throughout years appeared counter-intuitive to Stiegelmeier and Martinez.

But Berg and Wier explained that the cost of processing those types of plastic is putting a drag on the whole operation.

"We don't have great access to markets and transportation here," Wier said. "Not all recycling is equal. The benefits vary by commodity."

"We can't lose the money we're losing on plastics and continue to do everything else that we do," Berg added.

The change will require more sorting by consumers and new displays at the recycling centers.