Not a waste: City's recycling program grows

For more than 20 years, recycling services offered by Cape Girardeau have continued to evolve and grow in popularity.

They started with trailers that required users to separate their materials, then evolved to single-stream curbside pickup.

Participating households now place recyclables into a green 96-gallon cart, which is emptied by two recycling trucks that operate four days a week. Glass items, which have the potential to break and contaminate cardboard or newspaper fibers, have to be separated and dropped off at fire stations, the Osage Centre or Arena Park.

Participation

When Cape Girardeau's recycling program relied on hand-sorting by participants, the response was less than enthusiastic. Solid waste superintendent Michael Tripp said when the city switched to the single-stream system in 2010, participation increased.

Jack Yarbrough uses a skid steer to load cardboard into a bailer Wednesday at the Recycling Center drop-off facility in Cape Girardeau. (Glenn Landberg)

In the system's first year, the city's solid waste department collected 714 tons more than the year before -- a 65 percent increase.

The number of participating households also rose. In 2009, only 2,763 households participated. Once the simpler system was in place, that number surpassed 4,000.

"We had the big jump, and now it's kind of gradually growing each year," Tripp said.

The average number for 2013 was 4,337 residents a week, but Tripp said it was difficult to calculate monthly household participation in the curbside pickup.

"One week, you might have yours out, then the next week you don't. ... Then, me, I might live next to you, and I might be doing it the days you're not doing it," he said. "So I can't really get a good survey on how many's actually doing it per month, but our weekly total, I'm really happy with it."

If such a survey were possible, Tripp said he wouldn't be surprised if it indicated nearly 80 percent of households participated in the recycling program monthly.

Continued interest

Public works director Tim Gramling said part of the reason local residents continue to participate in recycling could be better education on the topic. People understand its environmental benefits and have a better grasp of how the recycling program works, he said.

"Over the years, I think people are a lot more aware [of city services] than they have been," Gramling said. "We've had a pretty involved educational program for many years, since basically the start of the program, where someone has gone out ... and done presentations and things like that."

The city also makes an effort to inform new residents of available services, he said, issuing a trash and recycling handbook with the brown and green curbside barrels.

Those who take the time to compare the brown trash barrel and the green recycling one will notice the recycling barrel is larger. Gramling said that indicates how much material can be recycled.

"That alone, just the fact that the container we provide is larger for recycling than it is for trash, is a message in and of itself that you have more recyclables that you get rid of than you do trash, generally," he said. "In fact, statistics will say that you can recycle about 75 percent of all the trash you throw away. Once people are aware of that, they try to take advantage of using that as well."

Tripp said he often discusses just how many typical household items destined for the trash actually could be recycled.

"Most of the material, when you're cooking or in your kitchen, most of that is recyclable," he said. "Your macaroni and cheese box, cereal box, all that's recyclable. Your milk jugs, butter containers, glass, ketchup containers -- 95 percent of that is recyclable."

Additional services

Gramling said the paper and plastic collected from the recycling barrels make up the majority of the material collected by the city, but other items can be recycled as well.

The city began offering e-cycling for electronic waste in 2011 through a partnership with Midwest Recycling Center. Residents can bring items such as TVs and computer monitors to the recycling facility at 2007 Southern Expressway.

Most items are recycled free, but certain items, such as large or particularly old televisions, require a fee. Gramling described participation in e-cycling as "decent."

While electronic waste recycling might not be the most popular recycling service at the city, it is more widely known than the city's motor-oil recycling service. For the past two years, the city has accepted used motor oil, though it must be in compliance with Missouri Department of Natural Resources regulations and guidelines. Gramling said the city can accept about 5 gallons at a time from individuals. Used oil from large commercial vehicles is not accepted.

Gramling said not many people make use of the opportunity to dispose of used motor oil -- possibly because they are unaware -- but he said the city has reason to encourage higher participation.

"It's something we need to promote more because that's a beneficial product directly to the city because we have waste oil burners in a couple of our facilities that we use to heat the inside of our buildings," he said. "We don't have enough of that to basically carry us through the winter, so we're always trying to get as much of that as we can get."

For now, residents seem to be happy with the available recycling opportunities, so Gramling said the program likely will see few changes in the near future.

"As far as the services we provide, we don't really have any big plans for that beyond just trying to be more productive at what we do," he said.

srinehart@semissourian.com

388-3641

Pertinent address:

2007 Southern Expressway, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

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Not recycleable

Unacceptable recycling items include:

• foil lined bags (including potato chip bags)
• plastic wrap
• wax paper
• hard-bound books
• hazardous waste and pesticide containers
• packing peanuts
• bubble wrap
• paper plates, towels, napkins, tissues, diapers and toilet paper
• plastic utensils
• photographs
• paper milk/juice containers
• cereal bags
• aerosol cans
• Styrofoam and takeout food containers
• pet food bags
• plastic labeled *"PLA*"

(source: city of Cape Girardeau)