The City of Auburn is embarking on single-stream recycling.
The city’s grant request for single-stream recycling carts has been approved, and all city garbage collection customers will have access to single-stream recycling by early 2019, according to David Dorton, director of public affairs for the city.
On Sept. 4, the City of Auburn received official notification from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management that the city’s grant request of $350,000 to purchase single-stream recycling carts had been approved.
Last year, 5,600 Auburn customers received carts as part of the first phase of the single-stream recycling.
“With this year’s grant funds, all interested citizens will have access to the new carts,” Dorton said.
“Grant funding through ADEM has provided the carts that we’re rolling out to all customers this fall,” Dorton said. “We’ve also been budgeting and have transitioned recycling companies to a company that will provide the single-stream service [with plastics included].”
Single-stream recycling is a system in which residents will be able to place acceptable recyclables into one curbside container.
Single-stream recycling will become an expansion of the current system, which includes sorting material into several bins.
“Last year, our recycling company announced that they would no longer accept plastics for recycling, so we accelerated our plans to move to a recycling company that would provide single-stream service, as well as accepting plastics,” Dorton said.
Acceptable materials in the single-stream program include aluminum cans, paper of all kinds, plastics numbers one through seven, steel and tin cans and flattened cardboard.
Single-stream recycling does not accept glass, plastic bags, plastic straws, Styrofoam or any other additional items.
Although glass is an unacceptable item in the single-stream program, glass can be recycled at the City of Auburn’s Recycling Drop-off Center at 365-A N. Donahue Drive, which is open 24-hours a day, all year.
“Some materials, such as glass, can’t be included in the single-stream,” Dorton said. “This is because if the glass breaks, the recycling company can’t easily separate out the different recyclable materials from one another, causing the ‘contaminated’ portion to be disposed of instead of recycling.”
The annual citizen survey five-year trend conducted last year indicated a 7.3 percent decline in satisfaction with the City of Auburn’s curbside recycling program, according to the city’s Environmental Services Department.
In an effort to simplify and motivate the citizen’s participation in recycling programs, the city applied for and was awarded a $288,000 grant to implement a single-stream system, according to a statement by the city.
“Residents who have asked for single-stream will no longer have to sort recycling materials, and we expect a higher participation rate in our curbside recycling program due to the ease and convenience of single-stream recycling,” Dorton said.
“[Single-stream] is the easiest recycling program to participate in, and those who previously did not wish to participate because of the sorting process may be encouraged to pitch in now because the difficult part is done elsewhere,” said Vic Walker, assistant director of Auburn University Campus Services and Facilities Management. “People only have to make one choice when they are going to dispose of an item. Is it on the accepted material list or not? They should then place it in the appropriate container. That’s it.”
Both nationally and locally, a decrease in recycling is occurring, Walker said. The national issue deals with China’s ban on the import of various types of plastic and paper and tightening of the standards for accepting post-consumer commodities established Jan. 1 of this year.
The national issue trickles itself down to us locally, Walker said, because recyclers in the United States have had to adjust and find places to take their items.
“Locally, we are still able to move the commodities at Auburn City and Auburn University, but the cost of doing so has increased,” Walker said.
The City of Auburn has combatted the cost by implementing the single-stream recycling program with the Environmental Services Department.
“The City of Auburn has decided to embark on single stream as it works for their population and they have obtained grants and funding resources to do so. They are able to take the large commingled commodities to a processor over distance in volume. They have their own transportation,” Walker said.
An additional benefit to the single-stream program, as stated by the Environmental Services Department, is the reduction of collection costs as the city will not have to make duplicate routes for individual recyclable items.
“The fundamental of recycling is a want to do,” Walker said. “We have to increase that with our constituents at Auburn University as well as in the City of Auburn.”
The current system used by the University is the separation of their recycling streams on campus.
“Paper goes in paper bins, plastic bottles and cans go in their bins. Without being critical of others, it is the more reasonable and sustainable approach for us.”
The city and University are friends and partners and both parties agree that increased recycling is the goal — no matter the system.
“Recycling should be everyone’s number-one thought when we recycle. By keeping reusable items from going to be buried in landfills or taken out to sea, we prevent a lot of harm to our planet,” Walker said. “It [recycling] is the most obvious and accessible sustainable practice a person can do. We also reduce the amount of energy that we use by making new products and prevent further planetary intrusion by mining practices for ore. We create jobs and support manufacturing in the U.S. by recycling.”
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