Starting this week, Kenosha officially enters the era of automated trash and recycling pick-up with 32,687 pairs of 95-gallon carts — two apiece for city households — tan for garbage, blue for recyclables. The city began distribution of the new carts last month, with a select group of residents in an early-roll out, pilot-testing the program in mid-July. “Everybody on Monday should have the new tan and blue 95-gallon carts and should be using them,” City Administrator John Morrissey said Thursday.
Late last year, the City Council approved the new automated system as part of a $7.7 million project in its 2020-2024 capital improvement program. The city also qualified for a $500,000 grant through The Recycling Partnership, a national non-profit group, funding which was used to purchase carts and providing them at no cost to households.
The new system comes with other benefits including an improved recycling process and better worker safety. On Monday, the first day of under the new system, residents who are curious (and still around and awake) can expect to see the automated waste trucks with an attached robotic arm that will pick up the carts to empty trash and recycling.
Residents can fill their separate carts with trash and non-bagged loose recyclables, store them away and roll them out on their specific pickup day. If the carts do not need to be emptied, they can wait until the next collection. “Recyclables cannot be in (plastic) bags, they need to be separate. No (plastic) bags in the recycle cart,” he said, but paper bags in can be placed as part of the mixed recycling in the blue cart. “Garbage needs to be in bags.”