SIDNEY — The city of Sidney has been awarded a Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Recycling and Litter Prevention, Recycle Ohio Grant (ROG).
The purpose of the grant is to conduct a targeted education and awareness campaign for its curbside recycling program. The recycling industry has gone through a tremendous series of changes related to commodity pricing reductions and increased costs from contamination along with normal cost increases. The China National Sword ban on recyclables has brought contamination to the highest level of concern. The combination of these factors is putting a significant strain on recycling operations and programs across the State of Ohio and in fact the entire country.
To address the issues stated above, the city will provide education and outreach to its residents to reduce contamination while increasing participation and tonnage. The campaign will address educational gaps and provide recycling feedback to the residents who participate in the curbside program. The campaign will involve direct engagement with residents in the program by inspecting recycle carts for proper participation before they are processed by the city’s contractor.
If recycle carts have non-recyclable materials or recyclable materials that are not acceptable in the program, the cart will be tagged with information as to why the materials placed in the cart are not acceptable and also will include detailed information on what is accepted in the program. The cart will be serviced by the city’s contractor even if there is a tag placed on the cart. The education program will inspect each household at least three times over the course of the program. The project will occur on a 10-week schedule.
The education and outreach will also include advertising before and during the tagging field work to continue the messaging of reducing contamination. Finally, in order to determine the effectiveness of the project, an audit on recyclable contamination will be conducted at the Shelby County Recycling Center before and after the tagging operations. The implementation of this grant is anticipated to generate the following improvements:
• A reduction in contamination by 30-40%
• An increase in recycling participation and tonnage by 5%
• Decreased amount of residual disposal at the Shelby County Recycling Center (SCRC)
• Increase price paid per commodity to the SCRC because the incoming single stream is cleaner
Recycling tips include:
• Only No. 1 and No. 2 plastics can be recycled. Do not put No. 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 in the recycling cart.
• Loose recyclables should be placed in the recycling cart. Do not put the items in bags. Plastic bags cannot be recycled.
• Recycle newspaper, cardboard and catalogs.
• Recycle glass food jars/bottles.
• Recycle metal food cans.
• All items placed in the recycling carts should be clean and dry.
• Check www.sidneyoh.com/DocumentCenter/View/665/Recycling-Guide-PDF for a list of accepted items for recycling.
For more informati0n, contact Jon Crusey, Public Works director, 937-498-8141.
