Curbside Recycling to Accept Colored Glass
A free citywide curbside program starting in October accept colored glass and many other materials not previously collected as part of regular residential solid waste pickup.
All residents paying for solid waste pickup will get their recyclables (including colored glass) picked up for free starting Oct. 1.
The city commission officially approved the plan at a meeting in June after praising it during a workshop in April.
Residents who already receive residential curbside service and have a city-issued waste barrel will be issued a 65-gallon rolling recycling cart. All recyclable materials may go into one bin; they do not need to be sorted, according to the city plan.
Residents will receive the service for no additional rate increase. Any resident paying the monthly $2.79 fee for recycling should see it removed starting in October, Valerie Brown, city sustainability coordinator, issued in a recent release.
Recyclables will be picked up once a week on the same day as residents' yard debris and bulk materials. Regular, twice-a-week garbage pickup remains unchanged.
The recycle drop-off center at Highlander Park will eventually be phased out.
City staff will monitor curbside waste over the upcoming fiscal year to see if the new recycling program reduces residents' overall solid waste.
Materials to be accepted come October:
- All glass (of any color)
- Cardboard
- Metal cans
- Mixed paper
- Newspaper
- Paper Cartons (milk and juice)
- Plastic bottles, including all plastics No. 1 to 7
Brown said further information will be delivered with residents' utility bills.
Mary Tini
8:56 am on Thursday, July 5, 2012
Yeah!!!!
Marc p.
11:52 am on Thursday, July 5, 2012
Great
Marie Vasile
1:03 pm on Thursday, July 5, 2012
Great! Thanks Dunedin officials!
Stacy Mixon
3:27 pm on Thursday, July 5, 2012
Finally! Thank you!
Shirley Detraz
4:01 pm on Thursday, July 5, 2012
Officals taking our choices away, when they start to charge us for recycling when many of us already have a routine we use for recycling.
Allen Isenberg
7:51 pm on Thursday, July 5, 2012
A very good move to encourage more recycling. We still have not included miscellaneous plastic containers such as various food baskets. Does this mean that bulk pickups at our condominium will no longer require a fee for the large barrels that the recyclables are placed in?
Jayne Krakowiak
9:00 am on Friday, July 6, 2012
Allen,just about all my food containers, including clamshell containers, fall into the 1 -7 plastic categories and are included in the new recycling program.
Madalyne Warren
9:24 pm on Thursday, July 5, 2012
Wonderful! We go to a recycling center. Will there be a bin for colored glass there?
Jayne Krakowiak
9:00 am on Friday, July 6, 2012
Valerie, thanks for a recycling program that is comprehensive and in front of the curve! It was well-researched and thoughtfully developed - so nice to get more service for a lower price (for those residents currently paying the $2.79 recycling fee that will go away in October!) I'm very hopeful that the reduced trash volume will result in fewer pickups - more peaceful mornings and less fuel exhaust. Sorry guys, I have nothing but respect for the job you do picking up residential trash - but it is noisy, etc.!
Jim Throne
1:16 pm on Friday, July 6, 2012
Just to clarify the disposable plastics recycling code. It is usually found on the bottom of a disposable item. It is a "chase" triangle with a number inside and a bunch of letters below. The code numbers 1 to 7. Here is the translation. 1=PETE (example: PET bottle). 2=HDPE (viz, milk bottle). 3-V (meaning vinyl or PVC, example: shampoo or detergent bottle). 4=LDPE (thin film such as garbage or trash bag), 5=PP (disposable drink cup, sometimes). 6-PS (take-away foam plastic container). 7=other. (This truly means any other disposable plastic that is not one of the above. Caveat: Altho the US is pretty strict in enforcing the codes with disposable plastic mfgrs, products packaged offshore may not contain the code. Altho the package is usually PVC, uncoded plastics are usually considered as "other." Just thot you might want to know "the rest of the story."
Victoria Kearney
6:38 pm on Monday, July 30, 2012
This is GREAT info. Thanks Jim!
Jim Throne
1:47 pm on Friday, July 6, 2012
Oh, and a couple more tactoids. PET water and HDPE milk bottles (#1 and #2) are the most recyclable plastics. In Europe ~50% of all PET bottles are recycled. In the US, ~25% are recycled. And a last statistic. According to Watershed, an Eco-based website, in the US, nearly 1500 PET bottles are consumed each second or ~50 billion a year. Politifact will check me on this, but I think that each and every one of us consumes 150 of those critters each year.