The city of Arlington will introduce new, more expensive recycling carts for residents on Monday.
New 65-gallon recycling carts will replace the 22-gallon bins Arlington residents currently use.
“It will be a little more convenient, so I like the idea,” said resident Chuck Lyle. “I probably would not have voted for it if I had the chance but I'm okay with it.”
Lyle says he would have liked to have had input in the 94-cent per month, per household increase – an increase he is willing to overlook since the wheeled carts mean no more lifting and mean fewer trips to the curb.
“I can put my recycling stuff in there and I won’t have to take it out but every couple of weeks,” Lyle said.
Residents can begin using the carts as soon as they are delivered to their homes, a process that the city expects to run through the end of June.
The city said, after June, they will no longer pick up recycling placed in the 22-gallon bins if they’re placed on curbs, rendering them obsolete.
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But residents can recycle those bins. The city advises people to place the old bins inside the new carts and take them to the curb. Sanitation trucks will handle it from there.
Some residents are opposed to the idea of recycling carts.
“I think the bigger carts are hard to store. I don't mind the dollar a month – I think we ought to be recycling. But the big carts I don't think here's anywhere to put them,” said Cleta Richmond, another Arlington resident.
While convenience was a factor, so was efficiency.
“It will be easier for our residents to recycle and they'll be able to recycle more content and material,” said city spokesperson, Sana Syed.
“Now we go from a system where we have a manual pickup, and now you're switching over to robotic arm pickup,” said Syed about the new sanitation truck system that will allow workers to do less lifting.
The list of items residents can recycle will be expanded beginning Monday.
You can find the list on the city's website.
