2005 Recycling Pilot Program Report

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participants voted in favor of wbeels. Sixteen residents voted in favor of lids. The focus group results are included in Appendix B. Waste Management preferred that the 24-gallon bins not be used because of tb.eir rectangular shape. They felt it would be less of a strain on drivers if the City used the square 22-gallon bins. So Roseville assembled a set of 22-gallon wheeled bins to be used in one of the test areas. Originally lids were to be included with the bins, but the manufacturer shipped the wrong lids and was unable to ship the proper size lids before testing began.. Wheeled Carts Waste Ma.nagement is switching its operations over to single-stream collection. Its subsidiary Recycle America Alliance has opened a new materials recovery facility (NiRF) to process recycling gathered in this single- stream systezn. Under Waste Man.agerxxent's single- stream progratn design residents put all their recyclable rnaterial #ogether in a lidded, wheeled cart — there's no sorting of materials. Carts range from 32 to 96 gallons. Waste Management picks up the material every other week using a compactor truck with an automated arm operated by a one-person crew. The irucks are the same type as ones used on residential garbage routes. According to Waste Management the hucks have a compactivn ratio of 4 to 1. Waste Management provided 64-gallon carts for the residents in the single-stream test areas. Figure Six Single-Stream Recycling Truck Weekly Collection A third possibility is to use weekly collection. By emp#ying bins more frequently you can theoretically increase the capacity. The equatiofl works this way: an 18 gallon bin emptied every other week yields up to 36 gallons a month, but if it's emptied every week it yields up to 72 gallons a month. Weekly col�ection could also elinninate some of the confusion in the current program. Nearly 1Q% of the calls to the recycling coordinator between July 2001 and Mazch 2004 were from residents wondering if it was collection week. Cal]ers also say that storage over time is a concern. For instance some residents who report that their recycling was not picked up on a collection day say they don't want to bring the material back inio their garage. Instead they say if the collection truck can't make a return trip, the resident will put the �aterial in the trash because garbage is picked up weelcly. Return trips to pick up xxaissed recycling are almost a�ways made wiihin 24 hours of the missed collection being called in. �a