Curbside Recycling Comes to Residents This October
City staff says it plans to accept colored glass, cartons and cardboard in addition to what is already collected at no additional cost to residents.
You'll soon be able to have your recyclables — to include colored glass — picked up with your curbside waste, at no additional cost to residents.
Starting this October, your recyclables may be mixed in a single, rolling bin (that the city will issue to you) and a contractor will pick it up once a week on the same day as your yard debris and bulk materials, staff told officials during a workshop last week.
Valerie Brown, sustainability coordinator, told officials that cartons, cardboard and colored glass will be added to the list of accepted materials.
The recycle drop-off center at Highlander Park will be phased out, Brown says.
The staff's plan to add recycling for residents is still in planning stages. It will need official approval from the commission before it is rolled out.
Regular, twice-a-week garbage pickup would stay the same for residents, but the move is part of a larger goal to scale it down to one day a week.
Solid waste personnel believe the new recycling option will cause the volume of residents' regular garbage to decrease, thus alleviating the need for a second pickup day.
"We want residents to see that," Brown said. "And that's one of the important things about when I started going out to homeowners associations or different meetings to show them, 'look how you can fill this container, and what's left? OK, the kitty litter, the diapers and maybe some food scraps.' That's pretty much it."
Solid waste personnel will monitor residents' curbside waste over the fiscal year to see if the theory holds true, and said they foresee possibly adjusting to a one-day-a-week trash pickup in October 2013, but no plans for it are in place.
The recent move to once-per-week pickup of yard waste and bulk debris saved the city an estimated $132,000 a year, Brown said.
For more information, call the Solid Waste Division at 727-298-3215.
Editor's note: This story was updated with clarifying information Tuesday, May 1, 2012, at 12:24 p.m.
Chris Sansbury
8:28 am on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Wow! This sounds great. I have always wondered why they didn't recycle colored glass. Does cartons mean they will be accepting all plastics, not just type 1 and 2?
Katie Dolac
9:08 am on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Yes, they added plastics 1 through 7 and those cardboard cartons (like for orange juice and the half-gallon soy milk).
Daniel de Caussin
8:32 am on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Yeah!
Bob Hackworth
8:39 am on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
also, yeah!
Mary Tini
8:45 am on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Yeah. Sorry to see highlander park recycling close
Katie Dolac
12:29 pm on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Please note that some clarifying information was added to this article. This plan is just that, it is a plan. It is still in the works and still needs official commission approval once the details are more in place. We just wanted make that point clearer. Thanks!
Madalyne Warren
3:25 pm on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
I hope this works out. I also wonder how I can recycle these new items since I don't get curbside pickup but have to go to a recycling center. Fingers crossed!
Joanna D'Ordine
3:54 pm on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
Yaay! I have been hoping they would step up the recycling program for years. I found that having that big trash barrel twice a week was excessive in MY household only because my recycling bin was always over flowing. I always had a problem with not accepting brown or green bottles. To say the least I'm thrilled that more people are recycling enough to make this important and exciting change!
Heidi Thompson
6:07 pm on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
I am thrilled and know residents will realize most of their "garbage" is really junk mail, etc. Adding all plastics and colored glass is fantastic. I really wish you would open a hazardous waste drop-off somewhere in the city for batteries, fluorescent and energy efficient lights, disposable gas grill tanks (the little ones), etc as it sometimes is difficult to hang on to these items for six months at a time. (I always go to the Dunedin and the Clearwater (behind Home Depot) hazardous waste days but to be stuck in a car line for a long time is really inconvenient not to mention hoarding these items.) I know Safety Harbor has a drop for hazardous waste - why can't we have one too?
Sheryl Avruch
9:13 am on Thursday, May 3, 2012
Yes--we absolutely need a hazardous waste drop-off site here in Dunedin, for safety as well as convenience.
LUCY
10:55 pm on Tuesday, May 1, 2012
This is a great initiative. I hope it comes to fruition. :)
Monty Seidler
8:41 am on Wednesday, May 2, 2012
This single stream form of recycling will stop my weekly trips to the recycle drop points for Dunedin & Pinellas County! There should be no reason for a Dunedin resident to not recycle. As a Florida Green City, we should take pride in that designation and always strengthen our effort! I too would love to see a permanent hazardous waste drop-off in our city.
barb weston
12:14 pm on Wednesday, May 2, 2012
if you close the recycle center at highlander park what are the condo subdivisions suppose to do?
Teri G. Beck
2:07 pm on Wednesday, May 2, 2012
@barb weston - It's been my experience (and Dunedin might do it the same way), that condos usually get large "corporate/business" sized containers which get picked up weekly as well. There is also a great recycling drop off on Curlew about a block East of CR-1.
Katie Dolac
2:12 pm on Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Teri, you are correct. Thanks, for chiming in! The plan they are working on includes condos and businesses. Depending on the location/space, those places would be issued rolling barrels or larger containers for its residents/employees. We'll definitely be tracking this as it develops.
barb weston
8:23 am on Thursday, May 3, 2012
the problem with large containers is the same as the drop off at highlander park. broken glass around the containers, bees around the containers, and finding a location that large pick up trucks can access the containers. we have thought about this and have found no solution as of yet,. we would love to have recycle curb service but have yet to find a viable safe sanitary way of accomplishing this task.
Melody Urso
7:11 am on Saturday, May 5, 2012
Yippie! I have been waiting 12 years for this, so glad that the city is listening - please keep us in the loop re: any city meetings and/or voting. I am in!
Jayne Krakowiak
10:38 am on Friday, June 15, 2012
Kudos to the City of Dunedin for taking a giant step foward with this comprehensive program! I'm looking foward to seeing the educational and communication actions rolled out. Is there anything that can expedite initiation of the neighborhood recycling phase?
Minnee D.
8:37 am on Friday, September 28, 2012
Hi, I live in a community residential home off of New York Avenue and I noticed that we didn't get a recycling bin like my neighbors did. We don't have our own individual garbage bin, we share one with my seven neighbors around me and was really disappointed to see we didn't get one. I've been recycling for over five years now and was really excited to hear that the city of Dunedin is going to do their part in providing a recycle bin for free pickup. Is there a way around this? Can i personally ask for a bin just for our residence if anything? Our garbage area is right off of New York Ave., and is the next house down from our neighbor's that has a recycle bin so it wouldn't be inconvenient or out of the way for the pickup. Any feedback on this is appreciated.