Under the city’s new recycling program, about 5,000 carts are being distributed to households to expand recycling capabilities for cardboard, newspapers, paper cartons, plastic bottles, plastic containers, aluminum cans, glass bottles and jars.

City of Fort Pierce Begins Single-Stream Cart Recycling with Grand Opening of Waste Management’s New Facility

 
 

Approximately 5,000, 64-gallon blue carts on wheels are currently being delivered to Fort Pierce households to expand recycling capacity and collection at the new facility. The Waste Management Fort Pierce Transfer Station can accept up to 150 tons of municipal solid waste, construction and demolition debris, recyclables and bulk materials for sorting and transfer.

“Our new cart recycling program gives residents expanded capacity to recycle more household items, keeping trash out of our landfills and improving the environment,” said Fort Pierce Mayor Linda Hudson. “The City of Fort Pierce is pleased to mark this expanded recycling program as well as the opening of the new transfer station. Residents currently recycle about 15% of their waste and our goal is to increase that to 45% with the new carts,” added Hudson.

Fort Pierce residents can put all recyclables into the blue carts including cardboard, newspapers, mixed paper, boxboard and paper cartons, plastic bottles and containers, steel and aluminum cans, and glass bottles and jars. Remaining waste will be transported to Waste Management’s Okeechobee Landfill for disposal.

News Release
City of Fort Pierce 

LARGO — Is Big Brother going to be snooping on your garbage?

Probably not, but Largo residents will soon get new recycling bins that will have microchips embedded in them. This will allow the city to keep track of where the bins are and whether they’re being used — or not being used.

That practice has caused controversy in places like Cleveland, where these devices enable officials to issue $100 fines to Clevelanders who don’t recycle enough of their trash.

However, the high-tech recycling carts caused no controversy when they were recently introduced in Tampa and Hillsborough County. There are no fines involved, and officials talk of using the microchips merely as a tool to improve customer service. Continue reading “Largo launches high-tech recycling bins”

A2011. The rate is defined as the quantity of solid waste that is recycled instead of being stored at a landfill.

Alachua County Waste Alternatives Manager Partick Irby said much of the county’s success is due to the mandatory commercial recycling ordinance implemented in 2001. The ordinance requires all commercial generators to separate designated recycling materials and make them available for recycling.

“With the two larger entities within the county having that ordinance, that helps out,” Irby said. “We also have a very robust curbside recycling program.”

Residents participating in the program place bottles and cans in blue bins and paper and cardboard in orange bins. Materials picked up from the curb are then brought to SP Fiber Technologies and sorted into containers and fibers.

Alachua County collected 410,380 tons of municipal solid waste and recycled 205,070 tons, according to the Solid Waste Management in Florida 2011 Annual Report. The state collected 26,486,286 tons of municipal solid waster and recycled just 30 percent.

The Florida Legislature hopes to attain a 75 percent statewide recycling rate by 2020. The Department of Environmental Protection submitted a comprehensive program plan in 2010 to achieve this goal.

According to the plan, recycling will be enhanced “in an economically responsible way through heightened public awareness, state leadership, development and expansion of recycling markets, and more investments throughout the local government and commercial sectors.”

“We are still a long way away from our goal,” Irby said, “so every little bit counts.”

Alachua County’s recycling rate is five percentage points higher than neighboring Marion County.  The 2012 numbers will be revealed in the next couple of months.

 

Posted by:  Joe Lancos on April 2, 2013

Many Communities Recycling, Repurposing Old Campaign Signs

Reuse of or recycling campaign signs is an excellent way to unwind after an election, save space in a landfill and helping the environment.

The best way to handle the signs is to reuse them. However most are outdated and should be recycled. Communities across the country are attempting to make that easy for residents.

However, the signs are generally made of two different grades of plastic—corrugated and polyethylene, i.e. poly bags. The first is a plastic form of cardboard; the second is a thin film. While both are recyclable, typical municipal materials recovery facilities do not recycle them.

Plastic bags cause complications at the single stream recycling sorting facility, according to a Baltimore County, Md., fact sheet. Specifically, malfunctions can occur when plastic bags get wrapped around the equipment.

Some communities in Florida are accepting corrugated signs.  Leon County will reuse the signs to shore up the bottom of rusted out recycling containers. How fitting.

Contributed to:  www.gather.com by Andy Arnold

Date:  November 08, 2012

Give us a call to collect campaigns signs and other paraphernalia.  Let’s make this a win-win situation!

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