City of Battle Creek issued the following announcement.
The City of Battle Creek and our contracted waste hauler, Waste Management, will pilot a recycling cart tagging program to help with the city’s ongoing recycling contamination problem.
Starting the week of Nov. 2, Waste Management drivers will focus on small sections of the City’s Monday recycling route to identify recycling carts that are contaminated with non-recyclable materials. Waste Management will tag contaminated Monday carts with a red sticker on the lid, indicating that there is trash or other non-recyclable materials in the recycling cart.
Waste Management will not empty your cart if they tag it; this is not a missed pickup. If WM tags your cart, you must correct the situation by removing the contamination. The tag will include WM’s phone number (800-796-9696), and you can call with questions on the materials in your cart. WM will tag a contaminated cart twice. The third time they find contamination, they will take away your recycling cart.
You can get back your recycling cart after having a phone call with city staff, to learn which materials are allowed in your curbside cart.
This is an effort to help Battle Creek recycle right. The city has struggled with recycling contamination, causing some of our weekly recycling routes to be taken to the landfill rather than the recycling facility. Too much non-recyclable material in the recycling stream decreases the value of the materials. Be sure to put your clean and dry recyclables in the cart loose. Anything in a bag is considered contamination. Plastic bags are the No. 1 cause of contamination in the city’s recycling.
The City of Battle Creek is committed to recycling right and we need your help! If you have questions about what is accepted in your curbside recycling cart, visit battlecreekmi.gov/recycling or call Patty at the City of Battle Creek Environmental Services at (269) 966-3355 ext. 1878.
Original source can be found here.
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