CITY PLANS EXPANSION OF RECYCLABLES

If you've been wondering why you can recycle some kinds of cardboard and paper and not others in Cape Girardeau, you can stop wondering.

Starting May 1, the Cape Girardeau Department of Public Works will start collecting all types of cardboard and just about all types of paper. The only kind of paper the city won't accept will be Tyvek, said Pam Sander, the city's solid-waste coordinator.

Tyvek is a kind of plastic-coated paper that is so strong most people can't tear it. "If you can't tear it, we can't accept it," Sander said.

The city already accepts four kinds of recyclables: aluminum, steel and tin cans; plastic containers; glass bottles and jars; and newspapers, magazines, and corrugated cardboard. Residents who take them out to the curb must wrap them separately, preferably in paper bags.

Since the city struck a deal with the St. Louis-based Smurfit Recycling Corp., it will add two more categories May 1: chip board and gray board, and mixed paper (not newsprint).

Chip board and gray board includes cereal boxes, shoe boxes, case containers for sodas, cake-mix boxes and those pieces of cardboard packed in new shirts, Sander said.

Mixed paper means all paper except newspapers, magazines and Tyvek.

Smurfit will only take the material if the city delivers it to its plant in Alton, Ill., said a manager at Smurfit. She said the chip board, gray board and paper will all go into making corrugated cardboard. That mixture of material is so easily available that Smurfit will not pay for it, she said.

However, if, for example, the white bond paper were separated from the rest, the city could sell it on the open market, she said.

Chip board and gray board are not very marketable because they are made largely of recycled material and each time a paper or cardboard product is recycled, its fibers get shorter and harder to use, she said.

Sander said she wants to see if the paper is "contaminated," meaning mixed with non-recyclables like disposable diapers, before exploring other markets.

Sander estimates that the city will collect more than 26 tons a month of the new materials compared with 67 tons of newspapers and magazines collected each month.

In the same period, the city ships about 680 tons a month to a landfill in Dexter.