Recycle bins to spring up

Published Sunday, April 27, 2008

By Brandon Evans

For the past 15 years, Paul Hansen, a district manager for IESI, said he has seen recycling grow tremendously.

Beginning the first full week in May, Decatur will be added to the list of Wise County cities that offer recycling. Chico has offered curbside recycling since the 1990s, and the city of Newark launched their recycling service several months ago.

Beginning on Wednesday morning, approximately 2,200 65-gallon blue recycling carts will be delivered to all homes in Decatur. The first collection begins one week later on Wednesday, May 7.

"We are excited about this and getting it going," Hansen said. "It will be a great thing for Decatur."

IESI, the waste management company that contracts with the city, has sent out flyers to all residences explaining how the service will work and what can or can't be recycled. Another informational flyers will be delivered with the carts.

Acceptable recycling items include:

- plastics numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 (the number is usually located on the bottom of plastic containers)

- all colors of glass

- aluminum and metal cans

- newspapers, junk mail and catalogs

- paper bags

- cardboard

Hansen said all the recyclable items can be commingled, which means the recyclable items don't need to be separated, just tossed into the cart.

"Just toss all the items together in the cart," Hansen said. "They will be separated at the plant."

For pickup, recycling carts must be placed at the curb by 7 a.m. on Wednesdays. The handle must face the residence and the cart must be a minimum of three feet away from any other objects.

City manager Brett Shannon said all residents need to follow these instructions in order to facilitate a quick pickup by the IESI recycling truck.

"There is just a driver on the recycling truck," Shannon said. "There are no workers hanging on the back like a regular garbage truck. A mechanical arm picks it up and dumps the items into the back of the truck."

Public works director Earl Smith said regular trash will continue to be picked up twice a week on the normal days.

The addition of recycling has added an increase to the monthly garbage rates. The cost for residential pickup will increase on May 1 from $11.85 per month to $15.84.

However, Smith said if people start recycling a lot of their waste, the city might cut back to once-a-week trash pickup and lower the rate a bit.

With the use of the large cart as compared to smaller bins used elsewhere, Hansen expects the recycling program to be successful in Decatur.

"We've seen recycling pick up by as much as 70 to 75 percent when using the carts instead of the bins," he said.

The recycling program will be for residential customers only. People living in apartments will not receive carts because apartments are classified as commercial usage.

However, Shannon said some businesses might be able to take advantage.

"We have talked about some businesses on the square taking part," he said. "There is not much room for a lot of dumpsters so this could help."

Businesses on the square would use the same cart as residential users if they ever take part in the program.

Also, Hansen said the carts remain the property of IESI. So, if someone moves, they need to leave the cart behind for the new resident.

The service looks to prevent tons of items from entering a landfill on a monthly basis.

"We'll expect 35 to 40 pounds of recyclables per month from each home," Hansen. "That is an average of all homes. There might be some homes that produce 50 pounds of recyclables per month and another that is five or 10 pounds."

Using the lower estimate of 35 pounds per household per month, Decatur will prevent 77,000 pounds, or 38.5 tons, of recylables from entering landfills each month.

The recyclables will be transported to one of three recycling plants located in the Metroplex. Usually, about 95 percent of all recyclables IESI collects wind up being recycled at the plant.

"About 5 percent of non-acceptable items get in there," Hansen said. "We just have to continue educating the public on what can and can't be recycled."

For more information on recycling and IESI go to http://www.iesi-dfw.com. Additional flyers on recycling instructions can be picked up at city hall or the public works building.