St. Paul’s citywide household recycling program is taking its “single-sort” message to the streets — and in most cases, to the alleys.
Through a five-year contract with Eureka Recycling, the city has distributed large wheeled, lidded carts to homes across St. Paul. Beginning Jan. 16, residents will be expected to fill their carts with recyclables for weekly pick-up.
Most types of household recyclables can be combined in the one 64-gallon cart, including pizza boxes, cardboard tubes and food containers, yogurt cups, plastic bottles and paper. Plastic bags, syringes, food and hazardous waste should not be placed in the cart.
For most homeowners, collection has moved from the boulevard to the alley, and collection dates have changed by neighborhood — for instance Highland Park has moved to Tuesdays, the North End and Hamline-Midway are on Fridays.
For residents, initial use of the carts may require some trial and error. The carts come in different sizes, and some residents may need to go bigger or smaller. Eureka will allow one such switch at no charge.
There also may be some initial confusion about where the carts need to be positioned for recycling pickup. Not all of them go in alleys. The City of St. Paul sorts this out with a flow chart:
Recycling details and guidelines can be found on both the Eureka Recycling and City of St. Paul sites.
Kate Davenport, a co-president with Eureka Recycling, said the Minneapolis-based nonprofit sorts the collected materials in its Material Recovery Facility near Minnesota 280 and prepares them for resale. Roughly 85 percent of the material remains within Minnesota. The WestRock mill in St. Paul, for instance, buys the cardboard and paper for repurposing into paper products.
“We really view ourselves as a demonstration,” Davenport said. “We’ve been around for a little over 15 years. Our due diligence on where that material goes has had some powerful impact on pushing the market … and it’s resulted in other players in the market in having to be more transparent. We probably do more due diligence than most.”
For other types of waste, Ramsey County maintains its own organics drop-off sites, as well as collection sites that accept medicines, syringes and hazardous material. In addition, the city hosts community clean-up events where appliances, electronics, scrap metal and concrete are accepted.
To launch the kick-off of the city’s expanded “All In” recycling program, the city will host relay races for kids with the wheeled carts at the Arlington Hills Community Center, 1200 Payne Avenue.
The kick-off will take place from 11:30 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. Monday at the community center’s large conference room. Families interested in participating should e-mail St. Paul Public Works.
St. Paul Mayor Chris Coleman will attend the event alongside St. Paul City Council President Russ Stark, Ramsey County Commissioner Victoria Reinhardt, chair of the county board, and representatives from Eureka Recycling.
Cities everywhere are grappling with recycling rates that have, in many cases, peaked or even slid, a likely result of changing lifestyle habits (fewer printed letters, newspapers and magazines) or demographics (more renters and recent immigrants).
In an effort to make recycling simpler and increase tonnage, St. Paul switched from dual-sort recycling to single-sort (or from two bins to one) in April 2014. In the year immediately afterward, tonnage actually decreased by 1 percent — a possible result of decreasing paper use, or an uptick in renters and new residents coming into the city.
Still, there were bright spots: With more types of plastics accepted, plastics recycling increased 82 percent in the first year. Minneapolis shifted from six bins to one in 2013.
City officials predict that overall, the shift to wheeled carts, alley collection and single-sort recycling will result in a 35 percent increase in tons collected and a 15 percent increase in participation.
So what should residents do with their old blue recycling bins? The wheeled carts arrive with an explanatory brochure from Eureka Recycling, and it indicates the bins should be considered a gift.
The Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday will not affect the recycling schedule.
For more information, visit St. Paul’s recycling page or call 651-222-7678.
