Plymouth To Offer Curbside Organics Recycling at Most Homes in City
The city of Plymouth is rolling-out its curbside organics program and hopes to educate the public about the benefits of composting.
“Once people get use to it, it’s not really much of a burden,” said Chris McKenzie, the engineering services manager for city.
He says the vast majority of people throw their organics in the trash.
McKenzie hopes to encourage people to recycle it instead.
“One question we often get is people wondering about the smell,” said McKenzie, “What people throw away into the organics bin isn’t much different than what’s thrown in a garbage bin. So, it’s not going to smell any more in an organics than in a garbage.”
Curbside pickup logistics
The new curbside collection is scheduled to begin the first week in March.
It will take place the same day residents have their trash picked up.
“This cart which will be about 35 gallons or so will be the cart that they’ll use to put the organics in and roll to the curb weekly with their garbage,” said McKenzie.
Residents can sign up on Plymouth’s website to receive an organics cart to get started.
“People are able to put in food scraps, food waste, banana peels, eggshells things like that,” said McKenzie. “Also because it is a commercial organics facility that it is going to go to, it can also handle things such as pizza boxes, and bones and meat.”
Plymouth organics recycling program will begin in early March.
Those who sign up by Thursday, Feb. 15 will receive their carts in late February.
Residents who sign up after Feb. 15, will receive their bins a couple of weeks after signing up.
Curbside pickup costs
Every resident will pay for the new service as part of their utility bill.
“The contact is structured so that it’s between $3.00 and $6.00 per month, per household depending on the participation levels within the city,” said McKenzie.
As participation goes up, residents will have to pay more to cover costs involved.
Not every place will offer curbside pickup
“This program is limited to single family households and multiple family households of up to 8 units,” said McKenzie. “Businesses, churches, nonprofits and apartment buildings are not eligible for the city program.”
All Plymouth residents do have the option of dropping off organics at the Recycling Drop-Off Site, however.
That site is adjacent to the Plymouth Maintenance Facility, on 14900 23rd Ave. N.
It is open daily and is accessible to Plymouth residents at all hours.
Hope for organics recycling’s future
McKenzie says up to a third of our garbage is organic.
He hopes this program will help get organics out of the waste stream and give it a second life as compost.
“I think in a few years it will be commonplace such as soda cans, glass, tin and paper are right now,” said McKenzie. “People routinely recycle the single sort materials, and I believe in the future people will routinely recycle organic materials as well.”
