The CRRA Board of Directors has voted to spend $65,000 for the new equipment, which is expected to be operational early in 2010.

Local towns that will be able to recycle all plastic containers include Bethlehem, Litchfield, Middlebury, Naugatuck, Oxford, Roxbury, Southbury and Woodbury.

Until the new equipment is installed and working properly, residents will still be limited to recycling containers made of plastics numbered 1 and 2.

Plastic film, such as food wrap, sandwich bags, dry-cleaning bags, trash bags and shopping bags, will still be prohibited.

Recycling of these additional materials became possible when markets for plastics numbered 3 through 7 developed to the point where reliable long-term customers for these materials were available.

Recycling depends on the ability to sell recycled materials to processors who manufacture them into new products. Those revenues enable CRRA to operate the recycling program without charging towns a disposal fee for their recyclables.

The upgrade marks CRRA's fourth major expansion of its Mid-Connecticut Project recycling program since 2005, including junk mail, magazines, catalogs, home computer paper and other types of mixed paper added in 2005; oversized glass, metal and plastic containers, boxboard or chipboard and aerosol cans added in 2007; and single-stream recycling with the retrofit of the Hartford recycling processing center in 2008.

The Mid-Connecticut Project's recycling rate has steadily increased since 2007.

The state Solid Waste Management Plan, which CRRA is charged with implementing, calls for increasing the state's recycling rate from its current level of about 30 percent to 58 percent by the year 2024.

The state's recycling rate includes items not managed by CRRA, such as deposit container redemption, composting of grass clippings, yard waste and food, and recycling of other commodities including scrap metal, waste oil, lead-acid batteries.

Those seeking information about CRRA and its activities may visit www.crra.org. Computer users can also discuss CRRA at crra-blog.blogspot.com.