Conway first in state to float single-stream

Conway was the first city in the state to switch to the single-stream method.

Conway's recycling program, begun in the late 1990s and serving 27,000 residents in the city and Faulkner County, has been commingling recyclables in one container for years, says Cheryl Harrington, director of the city's sanitation department.

It collects weekly with a 42 percent participation rate and accepts the same items as Little Rock does, plus Styrofoam and plastic bags.

"We have a Styrofoam densifier that melts it down into a hard product, which we then sell," Harrington says. "When the items are first put in the system, there's a bag wrapper that rolls all of them up together and then at the end of the day, removed."

In Jonesboro, the city and Abilities Unlimited Recycling Center work with Craighead County's Legacy Landfill to offer a weekly single-stream recycling program to 32,000 residents, said Angela Sparks, deputy director of the Craighead County Regional Solid Waste District. In Jonesboro, the participation rate in the recycling program is estimated to be 20 percent to 25 percent.

"We don't accept Styrofoam and fluorescent bulbs," says Anthony Feezor, recycling coordinator for Abilities Unlimited Recycling Center. "And while we accept plastic grocery bags, we don't resell them," explaining that there's no market for the bags that are bundled and compacted before being sent to the landfill.

Fayetteville offers a curbside recycling program and a 24-hour community recycling drop-off center at 1420 S. Happy Hollow Road. The standard items are accepted -- newspaper, cardboard (must be flattened), plastic bottles, aluminum cans (no tin foil or scrap metal) and all colors of glass bottles and jars (no dishes, ceramics, light bulbs or other glass items). Items are collected by city employees, sorted curbside, placed into separate compartments inside the truck and then taken to a city-owned and operated facility.

"We serve 21,000 homes and currently have a 56 percent participation rate, which we are working to increase," says Brian Pugh, Fayetteville's waste reduction coordinator.

HomeStyle on 05/10/2014

Upcoming Events