Recycling efforts stepped up on local streets

 

BY PRU SOWERS

KONK LIFE STAFF WRITER

 

Trash just got a lot prettier.

 

The city is scheduled to begin installing $137,000 worth of new recycling bins this week, promising a facelift for dirty containers in the downtown area. New cans will also be installed on North and South Roosevelt boulevards and College Road will see the first municipal cans installed at various points around the circle.

 

Key West Utilities Manager Jay Gewin said that while some of the 68 new recycling and trash bins will replace existing containers, there will also be bins placed in new areas to help boost recycling efforts. The city is trying to increase the percentage of recycled material in its waste stream to meet the state goal of 75 percent by 2020.

 

Included in the purchase are single black recycling bins that look like the existing wrought iron containers currently on city streets in the downtown area. Light blue dual containers that have an attached bin for trash will also be installed at various locations.

 

The city will also be installing new “donut rings” in many of the recycling containers. The metal rings, set just inside the can, spell out more clearly that a particular can is for recycled material, not trash.

 

“A lot of people don’t really notice until the last minute that it’s recycling, not trash. So there is some contamination. We’re trying to make it a little more obvious,” Gewin said.

 

The high purchase price was caused by a galvanized protective coating for each container.

 

“Key West is as harsh an environment as there is for these containers,” Gewin said, citing salt air and storms.

 

Monroe County is currently 8th on the most recent statewide recycling chart, while being 40th in population. Jack Price, an environmental waste reduction consultant in the state Department of Environmental Protection, said Monroe County is ahead of state goals of achieving a 50 percent recycling rate in 2015. State legislators set the 75 percent recycling goal by 2020 in 2012.

 

Will Thompson, Key West Solid Waste Coordinator, said residential recycling rates jumped in July when the city reduced municipal trash collection from twice to once a week and also swapped 18-gallon recycling bins for 65 gallon containers. The residential recycling rate went from 7 percent to 22 percent in only three weeks after the changes were instituted. However, residential property accounts for less than half – approximately 40 percent – of the solid waste stream in Key West.

 

“We’re not going to get those numbers up unless we get more business participation,” Thompson said. While residential properties are required by law to recycle, local businesses are not.

 

Tourists and locals walking on Key West streets are fairly good about using trash and recycling bins, Gewin said.

 

“It’s a bigger challenge during larger events like Fantasy Fest. But generally they do pretty well,” he said.

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