The city of St. Cloud is changing their recycling guidelines starting September 1st.  St. Cloud Assistant Public Works Director Dan Legatt says every 5 years the city of St. Cloud puts out request for proposal for the processing, transportation and marketing materials.  Legatt explains the contractor they work with takes the material they get from St. Cloud to process and market it.  The new contractor has guidelines St. Cloud needs to adjust to.

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Legatt says not much will change with paper recycling but there are certain plastics they will not accepted for recycling.  He says the steel, aluminum and glass will not change.  Plastics are numbered 1 thru 6.  Legatt explains that St. Cloud had accepted all numbers but will now accept numbers 1, 2 and 5.  He says numbers 3s are PVC plastics, which is a hard plastics found in many kids toys.  These were never accepted by the city anyway.  Plastic bags fit into the #4 category.  Legatt says the city never accepted those either but some area grocery stores do.  He says numbers 6s are home based plastics which hadn't been accepted either.  Legatt says:

This is a change in language but not really a change in what they collect.

When St. Cloud residents put their recycling in their blue bins Legatt suggests they dump their materials into the bin instead of placing them in the bin in a paper bag.  He says this helps to prevent the items from being flagged as non recyclable and sent to the landfill.

If you'd like to listen to my full conversation with Dan Legatt it is available below.

 

 

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