City of Cape: Campaign yard signs cannot be recycled

Ballots from last week’s general election have been counted, winners have been declared, and partisan residents have started removing hundreds of campaign signs from their yards.

But if you’re wondering whether election yard signs can be recycled, the answer is “no,” according to the Cape Girardeau Public Works Department.

“I’ve double checked with our recycling company representative and they do not accept those plastic yard signs,” reported Michael Tripp, Cape Girardeau’s solid waste superintendent.

Tripp said he knows of some municipalities in the St. Louis area where residents are being allowed to drop yard signs off with other recycling materials, “but we will not be accepting them in our recycling stream.”

So unless people want to “recycle” them to support candidates or causes in an upcoming election, campaign yard signs may only be discarded along with standard waste materials.

“In the past, the majority of the signs have come in through the (regular) waste stream,” he said, but so far this year, “I really haven’t noticed a big amount (of signs) yet.”

The solid waste superintendent said while the signs themselves cannot be recycled, the metal support frameworks used to mount the signs may be discarded with other recycled materials.

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