Why Loose Recyclables Are Key For St. Cloud’s Waste System
There are rules for recycling in St. Cloud and not everyone may know what those rules are. St. Cloud Assistant Public Services Director Dan Legatt joined me on WJON. He says the biggest concern they are seeing right now is some residents are putting full bags of recyclables into their blue bins. Legatt explains the recycled material needs to be loose in the bins for the items to be sorted properly.
Legatt explains the process where a resident puts out their recycling, the truck picks it up, it is brought to their material recovery transfer facility before it is moved to the Inver Grove Heights Recovery Facility, where it is sorted. He says when items are concealed or withheld in a bag, it cannot be properly sorted on the conveyer belt and those items are often not recycled. Legatt says the automated process pulls aluminum off the line with a magnet, before a magnet pulls steel off the line.
An optical sorter takes out the different kinds of plastics and blows it into a bin to separate it by type. Legatt says keeping items in a bag complicates that process. He says often times the whole bag is kicked off and not recycled. He says a paper bag that is loose can be put in the blue recycling bin.
Common items residents continue to put in recycling bins that they can't accept include pizza boxes with grease on the cardboard and styrofoam.
Legatt says another concern is the placement of the recycling bin. The recycling trucks use an automated arm to grab and dump the bins. If those bins/carts are too close to a garage or a vehicle, the driver has to get out to help keep the process safe. Legatt indicates a note is given to this resident when this happens the first time. If the resident fails to comply to the required 4-foot clearance, the person won't have their recycling picked up. All recycling bins should be out by 6am the morning they are to be picked up.
If you'd like to listen to my conversation with Dan Legatt, it is available below.