CITY OF NEW ORLEANS TO RESUME CURBSIDE RECYCLING SERVICES IN SERVICE AREAS 2 AND 3 NEXT WEEK
NEW ORLEANS — The City of New Orleans today announced that curbside recycling collection will resume for Service Area 2 and Service Area 3. Starting the week of Nov. 7, households in these areas will again be able to set their carts out and participate in the City’s recycling program.
“For many households in these service areas, weekly curbside recycling collection has been suspended for over a year,” said Mayor LaToya Cantrell. “With the implementation of our new sanitation contracts, we can again provide a more sustainable option to cleaning up this City. The resumption of this service is critical to building equity and access for all New Orleans residents that receive city services to also be able to receive curbside recycling collection.”
Residents in Service Areas 2 and 3 will also see some changes to their collection schedule starting next week. Each household will now set out their trash and recycling on the same day of the week. Some households will be assigned to a new collection day altogether, as routes were redrawn to provide collection on weekdays only. Everyone is encouraged to check their collection days for their address by visiting nola.gov/recycling or calling 311.
This week, thousands of households who have black recycling carts will receive a new sticker, along with instructions for how to apply the sticker to their recycling cart. This will help the collection crews know which carts are for solid waste collection versus for recycling.
The new stickers are part of overall improvements being made to the City’s recycling program. The City received a grant from The Recycling Partnership, a nonprofit organization that works with communities, companies and governments to transform the recycling process.
"The Recycling Partnership, with support from The Coca-Cola Foundation, is excited to work with New Orleans on this project to ensure all residents with City services can participate in curbside recycling again," said Charlotte Pitt, Director of Grant Development for the Recycling Partnership. "The new stickers will make the program easier for collections crews to differentiate between carts. This work has the potential to lead to a more effective program that can capture more recyclable materials to be turned into new products, creating local jobs and more feedstock for manufacturers."
Residents can continue to do their part by placing only recyclable materials in their carts, including aluminum and steel cans, paper (including newspapers and flattened cardboard) and empty plastic bottles and jugs. Residents should give food and drink containers a quick rinse before placing them directly into the recycling cart.
Some items that cannot be recycled include plastic bags (do not bag your recyclables in them), paper towels, pizza boxes, electrical equipment, glass, batteries and clothing. These items often get mixed into recycling carts because of “wishcycling,” or the hope that they can be recycled. While well-intentioned, non-recyclable items in a recycling cart can cause serious issues. For example, plastic bags and wrap cause equipment jams at the recycling processing facilities on a daily basis, causing temporary delays to remove the plastic.
Recyclable materials placed inside curbside carts will go to local facilities in Jefferson Parish and Baton Rouge where it is then sorted and sent to processors to create new products like cardboard boxes and packaging for food and medical supplies. Participating in the City’s recycling program also helps reduce the amount of waste sent to the landfill, thereby reducing the City’s greenhouse gas emissions which contribute to climate change.
Recycling will be collected every week. For more information, to look up your collection day or to receive a cart, residents should call 311 or visit nola.gov/recycling.
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