(Spirit Lake)– Spirit Lake residents will see major changes in recycling in coming days. For one thing, City Attorney-Administrator Gregg Owens says a different company will be picking up recycling…
“We found out Shamrock was not interested in continuing. People probably know that in January we signed a new agreement with Shamrock and we expected that would continue to renew for a while but Shamrock has decided to discontinue providing those recycling services so we were left having to find an alternative.”
Owens says under the new program, residents will be able to co-mingle recyclable items, and he says, they’ll be getting new containers…
“Waste Management will provide free of charge to residents new containers. Those will start being delivered I believe the first couple of days of October. Residents will be getting a letter in the mail shortly from Waste Management.”
Owens says there will also be a change in the days recycling is picked up in the city of Spirit Lake…
“Recycling will now be picked up on Fridays and every other week instead of twice a month. Basically we’ll be doing one half of the town one Friday, half the town the next Friday and then when residents receive their letter from Waste Management they’ll be able to identify what their pick up day is. So the first pick up for some will be the 9th; the first pick up for the other half of town will be Friday, the 16th.”
Owens says the city will also be doing away with the cardboard drop off site at the public works facility as a result of the change…
“Cardboard will have to be placed by residents in the containers that they receive. And I would encourage residents to sort of see how that goes for a few weeks. So yes, you’re probably going to have to do some folding and cutting, but Waste Management has also indicated that after a time if residents feel that they need a larger cart, at some point they would be able to request a larger cart from Waste Management.”
Owens adds commercial customers will also be able to opt into the recycling program with Waste Management…
“In the last 8 to 10 years we’ve seen a decline in commercial participation. In fact, a huge decline for whatever reason. And I expect with a new provider and the way that they’re going to provide service that we’ll see a lot more commercial participation in recycling. I also believe we’ll see more residential participation. Recycling for residents isn’t something you can opt out of. You’ll get a container, you’ll pay for the service and hopefully that will encourage people to use it. We’ve got to do something about not directing as much waste to the landfill here.”
Owens emphasizes the fact that the city of Spirit Lake will continue to pick up regular garbage with their own personnel and automated truck.
***As a footnote, Owens says the current containers are the property of the residents – but if they don’t want to keep them, they can dispose of them by dropping them off at the public works facility after receiving the new containers from Waste Management.***
