Bridgeton’s New Single Stream Recycling

                           Bridgeton’s New Single Stream Recycling

By Albert B. Kelly

In case you have not noticed, 96 gallon red recycling containers are turning up all over the community. By now, most are aware of our efforts to implement single stream recycling or SSR. But in case some of the details have been missed, it can’t hurt to review the program and what we hope to accomplish.

For any community, one significant cost is the removal and disposal of trash and recyclables. Back in the day, trash disposal was an easy thing and we didn’t give it much thought. But over the past several decades, as things changed, we’ve had to think carefully about recycling and trash disposal.

Around 1990, with tighter regulations, Bridgeton closed its landfill. It was at that time that the City began contracting with trash haulers for curbside pick-up. Along with trash removal, the contract with the hauler included picking up recyclables.

To do this, residents had the smaller red trash container for recyclables (i.e. plastic soda bottles, glass, beverage cans, etc.) and the service also included the square red paper bins that were used for newspapers and junk mail. But the process was just not working as efficiently as it should.

For one thing, the small red recycling containers would often overflow with the result that bottles and cans would spill out and litter the streets and sidewalks throughout the community. The other issue was mixing or “co-mingling”. Many people simply didn’t bother to separate paper from plastics from glass. Also, a lot of the recyclables ended up in the trash containers.

Since what we pay (tipping fees) for trash hauling and disposal at the landfill is based on weight, the result of mixing recyclables in with trash is that our trash weighs more and we pay more. By lowering the weight of our trash and increasing the amount we recycle, we can lower the costs for this curbside service.

In addition, we also generate revenues from recycling and this year we anticipate receiving $8k from our efforts, which will only grow, so there’s revenue on both ends of the equation. Value is also measured in terms of the environmental benefits as well.

With these factors in mind, we made the decision to switch the process over to single-stream recycling or SSR earlier last year. By doing so, we believe that providing one large 96 gallon red container, the “single-stream”, would make it easy for residents to recycle.

People would no longer need to worry about separating paper from glass from whatever; but would now be able to dump all recyclables into one large container for curbside pickup.

In addition to making the process easier, the larger red containers mean that residents should not easily have overflow as they are big enough to accept what a household can generate in a week.

As I said, the goal is to lower the weight of our trash and the “tipping fees” we pay by recycling absolutely everything that we can. This will mean lower prices for residents.

But the flip side of the new SSR program will mean aggressive enforcement of the rules. From now until April 6^th, enforcement personnel will focus on educating residents on the new program; basically what items should go into the 96-gallon red recycling containers and what trash items go into the 96-gallon blue containers.

Enforcement officers will be checking both the red recycling containers and the blue trash containers to see what’s inside. Come April 6^th, if they find anything co-mingled in either container, it will result in a $59 fine in addition to any court costs that may be imposed.

For the record, plastic, steel (tin), aluminum, glass containers, newspapers, magazines, beverage/food containers, cardboard and other paper products, and junk mail should all go into the 96-gallon red containers.

The types of things you should not put into the recycling container are plastic bags, any materials in plastic bags, shredded paper, any hazardous waste like motor oil containers, Styrofoam or other non-recyclable plastics, any liquids in bottles or containers, and non-recyclable glass or ceramics.

However you get it done, the important thing is to take the time to look at whatever you’re about to throw out to see if it is something that can be recycled. Packages generally contain the recycling symbol and that’s the place to start. You will be surprised at what we can recycle.

It is a change to be sure, but the bottom line is that this will lower costs, make our streets cleaner, and help the environment; and that’s no small thing.