The city of Battle Creek is easing in a new program to encourage people to do a better job of recycling. Patty Hoch-Melluish is the city’s Environmental and Storm Services Manager. She says that starting Monday, November 2nd, Waste Management Workers will start tagging recycling carts that have the wrong stuff in them.
She said the action is needed because a lot of truckloads of recycled material are being rejected at the Holland, Michigan facility. “It doesn’t take much to contaminate an entire truckload, “said Hoch Melluish. “We can have all the neighbors doing a great job and then we have a couple of people on the street that are putting their trash or things that aren’t recyclable in there.”
She says the charge for a bad truckload is $1,600, and on top of that, the whole load ends up in a landfill. Hoch-Melluish said the city has been working with Waste Management to improve things, and that has led to piloting a small-scale tagging program to help with the contamination problem. Carts with contamination will be tagged with a red sticker and the cart won’t be serviced. If a cart is identified as having contamination two weeks later, it will be tagged a second time. If it happens a third time, the recycling cart will be removed from the residence. “We’ll work under the assumption that that household is not interested in recycling.”
To read the full story, visit https://wbckfm.com/battle-creek-crews-to-start-red-tagging-recycling-bins-with-the-wrong-stuff-in-them/?utm_source=tsmclip&utm_medium=referral
Author: Tim Collins, WBCKFM
Image: WBCKFM