ATLANTA — Don't be surprised if you see a city worker going through your recycling bin.
Starting this week, workers will be looking into recycling bins along city streets to make sure what's inside isn't contaminated.
You may not even realize you're doing it, but authorities said that up to half the recycling bins in some areas have issues.
The biggest offender is when homeowners bag up their recycling and then place it in the bin. The second biggest offender is the plastic bags themselves.
"That includes not only the grocery bags, dry cleaning bags, bread bags, wrap from your water and paper towels, which do not get recycled. It actually gets caught up in the equipment at the processor," Michelle Wiseman, director of Waste Diversion and Outreach, told Channel 2's Steve Gehlbach. "We want it loose and clean, so do not put your recyclables in a bag just put them into the bin."
The snooping is an education effort about what gets recycled and what doesn’t in areas with the highest recycling participation, but some of the highest contamination rates.
A dozen city workers are walking a different neighborhood each day of the week, and bins with a problem get a tag that says, “oops,” marked with what the problem is. That way, it won’t get picked up.
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The crews will check the same routes on the same days for a total of eight weeks to see if things get better.
Monday is Ansley Park and Tuesday is Grant Park and Peoplestown.
The West End will be checked on Wednesday and Collier Heights on Thursday.
The city will then track the progress, which gets logged and mapped in a mobile app.
The cleaner the stream, the more money goes back to the city to keep costs down, ultimately saving taxpayer dollars.
Another money saving goal for the Atlanta is more homes participating in the recycling program.
Cox Media Group
