Recycling by Doing Nothing!

I posted once before about the change to the City's blue can recycling but now the date of the change is upon us!  There are also some new developments that you may not have heard about -- unless you are one of the few reads the information that comes in your utility bill. 


The Provo Municipal Council recently approved a new OPT-OUT recycling program for all residential garbage service customers in Provo. Many are already participating in the every-other-week household curbside recycling program for paper, plastics, cardboard, and aluminum and tin cans. Under the opt-out program, those not already participating will be automatically enrolled on November 1, 2011, unless they notify the city by August 7, 2011, that they do not want to be included.

If you want to opt-out, here is where you can find information about how to do it.  I hope you will not opt out but will join your neighbors in reducing the waste going into the land fill. 

I urge you to look over the information on the Provo City Sanitation web page to get up-dated on the program. When I first started recycling with the blue can only plastics labeled 1 or 2 were acceptable.  I was surprised to learn that I now can recycle plastics labeled 1 throught 7!  And I didn't know that I could send paper, including old phone books, to the yard waste composting station (1625 S Industrial Pkwy).  Did you know that there are locations listed for recycling such things as tires, glass, antifreeze, computers, and car batteries?

If you are disappointed to be required to pay for the recycling service, consider this:  You can opt out and still recycle by delivering your recyclables to bins located at the composting station and at Kiwanis Park (820 N 1100 E). However only plastics labeled 1 and 2 are accepted there.

If you are already a blue can recycler, you will be receiving a new can, since the service provider is changing after the 26th.  After servicing the container that day, Waste Management will be picking up their containers.   All Waste Management blue containers should be placed out and left out for Waste Management to remove. 

Because the City is expecting to double the number of residents recycling with the OPT-OUT program, they have divided each daily route in half effective August 1st.  You will still be receiving every other week blue container household recycling service.  However, for example, half of Monday's route will be serviced by Allied Waste on August 1st (Schedule A) and the other half will be serviced on August 8th (Schedule B). 

The new container should have a Pick Up Schedule on the lid of the container that identifies the resident's weekly schedule. 

Feel free to pass this information on to others that you think need it.