INDIANA – People in Indiana need to recycle more. That’s the message from Indiana’s Recycling Coalition.

The group says just 17% percent of people in Indiana put recyclable plastic, glass, or newspaper in a recycling bin. The goal is to grow that number to 50%.

The Recycling Coalition hosted a conference this week in Indianapolis to figure out how to make that happen. Mitchell and other leaders at the conference laid out some of the best practices to people whose jobs are based on recycling.

Elizabeth Atteberry came to the conference from Terre Haute.

“I learned that we need more signs. We need more communication,” Attebery said. “We need to have more knowledge of how to recycle, what to recycle and where to put it.”

To that end, Mitchell offered a couple of tips when speaking to WISH-TV:

-Bring your own bags to the grocery.

-Bring your own take-home container to a restaurant, to cut down on Styrofoam use.

“Aluminum cans are highly recyclable. They will become a new beverage can after you have recycled them. There’s some other things that should not be in here (a recycle bin),” Mitchell said. “This is a common misconception. People say ‘Oh, plastic is recyclable, so, I will put my plastic in the recycling bin.’ This is plastic film. It’s flexible-plastic packaging. It is recyclable, but not in your recycling bin.”

Stores accept flexible-plastic packaging for recycling.

The Indiana Recycling Coalition is awaiting state and local funding to create a statewide online master recycling program that will teach people about recycling topics. They hope to get that up and running this year.