03/30/11 Monday night City Council members heard from Bob Stone of Allied Waste concerning the City’s recycling program. Currently city residents use an 18 gallon red recycling bin at the curb for pickup. If the customer has additional recycling they are allowed to use additional containers to place the various recycling items in. Stone plans on providing city customers with a 95 galloon tote exactly like the trash totes expect it will be blue with a different colored lid that would also have RECYCLING stamped on it.
Stone explained that studies by various companies show an increase in participation with the larger totes. Increases ranged from 5% to 12% with the averages being 8 to 10%. He noted that providing a lager container makes it more convenient for customer participation.
There is no additional cost to the city. The new recycling totes will allow Allied Waste to save a bit of money in labor because trucks will be used to pick-up and dump the totes. They also expect to see an increase in the tonnage of recycling material that currently has a financial benefit for the company too.
Stone said they believe that people that currently recycle fill their bin and when it’s full place recyclable items in the trash. The new larger totes will allow for many more items to be place in the totes and all items can be co-mingled.
Allied Waste has gone county-wide in LaPorte and Saint Joseph counties with great success. Stone said they plan to have all their customers in Marshall County using the recycling totes in the near future.
It is anticipated that the new RECYCLING totes will be distributed to Plymouth trash customers in May with collection in full force by June.
