Laserfiche WebLink
people who have returned from vacation or finished cleaning out their home. <br />Newspupe�s iyz cr Single <br />Stream Recycling Cart <br />What Other Cities Do <br />Some Minnesota cities have begun addressing storage and conve- <br />nience issues by using wheeled 64-gallon carts for recycling. <br />Brooklyn Park, Brooklyn Center, Crystal and New Hope are <br />using a system called single stream. All recyclable material goes <br />into a single cart. In a pilot program in 2001 theses cities found <br />participation went from 58 percent under to current two-sort bin <br />system, to 74-87 percent participation in the single-sort system. <br />They averaged 23 pounds of recycling set out per household <br />versus 18 pounds per household with the bin system. <br />While this appears to be moving forward, there are some significant concerns about single stream <br />recycling. The major drawbacks are inability to monitor what is collected at the curbside and <br />additional processing at the facility both of which lead to contamination of recyclables. <br />Data on current single stream recycling facilities shows the amount of material collected that is <br />not recyclable (out throws) is 5% or greater and the material not able to be recycled (residual) to <br />be 15-25%. Numbers on Waste Management's facility in Minneapolis show a lower rate of <br />residua] but are preliminary because the facility opened in January 2002 and is not running at full <br />capacity. Also the numbers will be skewed because single sort materials are miXed with two sort <br />and source separated (seven sorts) systems. Another factor influencing this is that Waste Man- <br />agement collects broken glass and sends it to its ]andfills for use as drainage or cover material. <br />That material is not included in the facility's residua] rate even though it ends up in a landfill. <br />Residual for Roseville's current two-sort system when it was being processed at a two-sort <br />facility was approximately 7 percent; out throws closer to 1%. Thus the net amount of material <br />that is successfully processed in a single stream system can go down even though the amount <br />collected goes up. <br />It's not necessarily the single stream method that leads to increased participation. In 2001 St. <br />Paul's Eureka Recycling that runs recycling programs for the City conducted a pilot program on <br />recycling behaviors. The study included single stream with carts, two stream with carts, two <br />stream with bins with weekly collection and two stream with bins with every other week collec- <br />tion as well as a pilot area using St. Paul's current seven sort system. Statistics show the most <br />significant gains in recycling tonnages collected and in tonnages successfully processed where in <br />the area that had weekly collection using bins and in the area that had biweekly collection using <br />wheeled carts. This suggests that elements of convenience such as carts or weekly collection are <br />what increase participation instead of being able to put recyclables into one container. <br />Meanwhile Roseville residents seem cool to the idea of using a single stream system. In the 2002 <br />survey, Roseville homeowners were asked if they would like to use a single stream system. Fifty- <br />one percent said yes, 49 percent said no. The group that said yes was asked how much more per <br />month they would be willing to pay to use a single stream program. Thirty-nine percent said they <br />would not be willing to pay more while 24 percent said they would pay $2 more a month and 19 <br />percent said $1. <br />.1 <br />