Jacksonville, FL Leaders Working on Reduction in Contaminated Recycled Waste

SEATTLE (Waste Advantage): Jacksonville leaders say recycling efforts across the city are improving. During a news conference at City Hall, they praised residents for being more mindful about what goes into their recycling bins. It stemmed from an audit launched last year and the results were shared. City officials said neighbors are recycling more, which means they’ve lowered contamination levels. The more people recycle, the less that goes into the city’s landfill. It’s something officials say saves money.

In the last 12 months, leaders say contamination levels in the recycling waste stream are down 23 percent. It comes after outreach efforts to make sure neighbors recycle the right way. “Plastic bottles, detergent bottles, milk bottles,  your hard plastics, things you can’t stretch, put your finger through, all of those are recyclable in our program and get turned into new products,” Public Works official Eric Fuller said.

Fuller said since more people are recycling, it’s saving money. “We literally went through and observed 10s of thousands of recycling carts over a 7-month period,” he said. “Any contamination over 10 percent, we pay for that disposable. It’s $30.30 a ton, by reducing that we save roughly $70-to-80,000 a year in disposal costs.”

Courtesy: www.wasteadvantage.com