Recycling penalties on hold by hauler

Confusion over acceptable items cited

Local recycling officials will wait before deciding how people who repeatedly recycle improperly should be more uniformly penalized.

Recycling contractor Waste Management on Monday began tracking which homes in its Little Rock, North Little Rock and Sherwood curbside programs are placing nonrecyclable items in recycling bins. Originally, the company said it would create a three-strikes policy for repeat offenders with a penalty after the third offense to be determined.

A spokesman for the company said Thursday that the influx of calls and emails after the announcement of that decision had prompted the company to wait before establishing a penalty.

"We're easing into this," said Jordan Johnson, who does public relations for Waste Management.

"The reaction we got was higher than expected," Johnson said, adding that it was a good thing because much of the feedback involved questions from people about what is recyclable and what isn't.

The company will start a public education campaign and continue to monitor recycling bins and measure which homes' recycling bins are getting slapped with tags that indicate their bins contain nonrecyclable items before deciding what to do next.

North Little Rock officials already take away the recycling bins of homes where residents have repeatedly placed trash in them. The issue that was to be discussed Thursday morning at the Regional Recycling and Waste Reduction District board meeting would have been the possibility of a more uniform penalty for repeat offenders. A suggestion by North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith was to take away bins after three strikes.

At the meeting Thursday, none of the board members mentioned any possible penalties or the announcement last week that a penalty would be sought and considered at Thursday's board meeting. Johnson confirmed after the meeting that no penalty was being sought right away.

Ronny Loe, Little Rock's assistant director of Public Works who was representing Mayor Mark Stodola, said he would like Waste Management to send frequent updates to the city on which recycling bins were being tagged. When a recycling bin isn't picked up, it could be because it was missed or because it was contaminated. Updates would help the city determine which one it was and if it needs to bill Waste Management $50 for not picking up a bin.

The district's board members include the mayors of six cities in Pulaski County -- Little Rock, North Little Rock, Sherwood, Jacksonville, Maumelle and Wrightsville -- and Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde.

The district is a subset of the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, from which it receives funds, but is locally operated. The district helped Little Rock, North Little Rock and Sherwood secure a seven-year contract with Waste Management for single-stream curbside recycling services that began in 2012.

Single-stream recycling, which allows residents to place all recyclables into a single bin without having to sort them, significantly boosted curbside recycling participation to 80 percent throughout the three cities but has recently led to issues with people recycling trash and other nonrecyclable items.

In recent months Waste Management has thrown about 40 percent of recycling loads into the landfill. Certain nonrecyclable items, like dirty diapers or food contaminating nearby recyclables, can contaminate significant parts of or entire loads of recycling.

Tags placed on bins with nonrecyclable materials are written in English and Spanish and urge people to keep out foods and liquids. They also indicate that recycling should not be placed in garbage bags or other plastic bags, and that plastic bags are not recyclable. Some grocery stores will accept plastic bags for recycling.

The tags, which have contact information for people who receive them, also have check boxes where workers can indicate why recycling was not picked up.

Each recycling bin has a guide as to what can be recycled: paper, plastic, glass and metal. Paper and aluminum cannot have food residue on them, and aerosol cans must be empty.

Metro on 06/10/2016

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