Office of the Mayor

City Officials Gather to Celebrate City's Expanded Recycling Service

Neighborhoods and Wards Getting Ready for Recycling

December 1, 2010 | 2 min reading time

This article is 14 years old. It was published on December 1, 2010.

Mayor Francis G. Slay, Board of Aldermen President Lewis Reed, and Streets Director Todd Waelterman gathered at City Hall to celebrate the City's expanded recycling service.

The City's Refuse Division has been working with the Board of Aldermen to determine which neighborhoods and wards are ready for recycling -- and the City has already started rolling out recycling in some wards. Wards 28, 8, and 15 have been the first wards to receive recycling service. The City is first targeting wards which had the highest percentage of recyclers participating in the Earth Circle cost-sharing curbside recycling pilot program. The grant funding for that pilot program ended last month, and that program was discontinued in favor of focusing on implementing a City-wide recycling service.

The City's current refuse plan includes:

  • Twice weekly collection of solid waste
  • Monthly pickup of bulky items, including tires, batteries, furniture, appliances, etc.
  • Drop off of one load per month of additional refuse/bulk/yard waste at the transfer station
  • Weekly collection of yard waste during the growing season
  • In neighborhoods that want it, residents will receive one pickup of single-stream recyclable solid waste and one pickup of "regular" solid waste per week.

New Recycling Containers

Recycling containers are currently being installed in City alleys. Residents who use roll-out carts will receive an additional roll-out cart to be used for recycling pickup. The City's recycling program is single-stream, which means that all recyclables will go into the same container to be sorted later. For a full list of recyclable materials, please visit the Refuse Division website.    

"Offering recycling as an additional element of the City's trash service shows that we are committed to sustainability," said Mayor Slay. "This service will reduce the amount of trash we send to our landfills, will raise awareness about the importance of recycling, and will make recycling easy and convenient. This is a great step to ensuring that our City -- and out world -- is clean and habitable for generations to come.

The City will continue to operate 58 drop-off recycling locations, 30 of which have been added within the past two months.  Find your nearest drop-off location by visiting the Refuse Division's website.