When the city of Lexington announced it was temporarily suspending the recycling of paper products, it affected nearly all of Central Kentucky. Lexington’s recycling center serves more than a dozen local counties and cities. The suspension of paper recycling also affects the following cities: Berea, Danville, Frankfort, Georgetown, Harrodsburg, Lawrencebug, Midway, Nicholasville, Paris, Shelbyvillem Simpsonsville and Versailles. Counties affected by the change include: Anderson, Clark, Franklin, Harrison, Jessamine, Madison, Scott, Shelby and Woodford counties.
Paper products that can not be recycled and should go into trash cans include office paper, newspaper, magazines, paper towel rolls and any box food comes in Including cereal, rice and butter boxes. Shipping boxes are still accepted. “Brown corrugated boxes such as shipping boxes we still have a buyer for,” Angela Poe, Lexington’s senior program manager over recycling, said.
Environmental Quality and Public Works Commissioner Nancy Albright said if paper ends up in recycling bins, it will cost the city and taxpayers more. “It’s more expensive for us to process it and then send it to the landfill,” Environmental Quality and Public Works Commissioner Nancy Albright said. “It’s cheaper to send it to the landfill.”
Items that can still be recycled include aluminum and steel cans, plastic jugs with screw top lids and glass. The city has had to pay someone to take its glass for years. Albright said Tuesday the city hopes to make a decision within the next few months on whether glass recycling will continue. The city is still looking for buyers for recycled paper. Some new paper mills are expected to come online sometime in late 2019.