Plastic bottles no longer go in the trash, under a new state law.

The legislation, which takes effect Oct. 1, bans plastic bottles, along with motor oil filters and wooden pallets, from entering any North Carolina landfill.

The goal of the ban is to improve plastic recycling efforts, which should lead to improvements in both the environment and economic conditions. Recycling the bottles saves natural resources, keeps reusable items out of landfills and provides the materials needed to make recycled products, local officials said. They have encouraged residents to take the new legislation to heart.

“It saves our natural resources, it saves landfill space and, actually with plastics, they can go toward making instant products out of recycled bottles, such as more water bottles,” said Chris Doherty, public works director for the city of Clinton.

He pointed to the law as being an environmentally-friendly edict.

“We’re hoping to get more material out of the waste system,” said Doherty. “(Landfill space) is a problem here as much as anywhere else. You want to try to conserve that. That’s why that statewide push is there, now that there’s more opportunity to recycle more. What (local residents) are doing is good. It’s just trying to encourage more recycling.”

While the bans are law, the state has no garbage police to slap handcuffs on those who break it. According to reports, any enforcement efforts will be aimed at haulers who show up at landfills with large loads of banned materials. For his department’s part, Doherty said nothing will change operationally due to the new bans.

Assistant county manager Susan Holder said she and county manager Rick Moorefield were planning to meet with Waste Industries officials this week to talk about the new legislation and what can be done by the county on its end.

“We just want to make sure we are doing everything we need to do, our due diligence,” said Holder.

Every year, North Carolinians recycle more than 480 million plastic bottles.

The state hopes to recycle 2 million tons of bottles, cans and other materials each year by 2012. The rate now is about 1.3 million tons a year.

State recycling director Scott Mouw has noted that North Carolina recycles fewer than one in five bottles, and is confident that rate can rise. Currently, almost four out of every five plastic soda containers, water bottles, milk jugs and detergent bottles — nearly 300 million pounds — are thrown away in North Carolina each year.

According to state statistics, if all the plastic bottles used in this state were recycled, more than 2.4 billion additional plastic bottles would be kept out of landfills annually. According to city officials, the discarded plastic bottles could line the Blue Ridge Parkway 642 times or the Outer Banks 28 times.

Holder said the Sampson County Landfill has sent out notices to many of its regular customers. Leading up to Thursday, city of Clinton officials have also placed information about the new bans on the back of water bills.

There are a dozen recycling sites throughout Sampson County.

Within the city of Clinton, another three drop-off sites for plastics, glass, aluminum, office paper and newspaper and corrugated cardboard are available. Advance Auto Parts, located at 331 Northeast Blvd., will also accept used oil and oil filters.

The recycling drop-off sites are located on John Street (next to the Clinton Fire Department), at the Beaman Street fire station and at Royal Lane Park (behind the old putt-putt on Pierce Street). A fourth site, to be located at the Sampson Center, is in the works.

Doherty said the recycling sites get constant attention.

“We collect those items at least twice a week,” said Doherty, “sometimes more. We check it pretty regularly.”

Plastics are sorted from numbers 1-7, often indicated by the number inside the recycling triangle on the bottle.

In addition to the items banned starting Thursday, residents and businesses should also separate a number of other items for recycling and not place them in trash cans collected by the city. Among them are ABC Beverage containers, oyster shells, antifreeze, lead-acid batteries, scrap tires, appliances, motor oil and yard waste.

“The list of items banned from North Carolina landfills continues to grow,” said Kelley Dennings, education and outreach coordinator for the N.C. Division of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance. “Not only will these three items be added to the list in October, in January 2011, televisions and computer equipment will also be added to the list in order to combat the increase of electronic waste in our landfills.”

For comprehensive information concerning the newly banned materials, visit the DPPEA website at http://p2pays.org, and click on “banned landfill materials.” There, those interested can find how, where and why to recycle plastic bottles, wooden pallets and motor oil filters.

Questions about local recycling can be answered by contacting the city of Clinton’s Public Works Department, at 910 299-4905, or Sampson County Public Works, at 910-592-0188.