Recycling at Coralville households getting easier

CORALVILLE — Coralville residents would no longer have to keep their types of recycling materials separate when the city launches single-stream recycling, planned to start early next year.

Currently, Coralville offers curbside recycling for single family and duplex housing where residents are told to group their recycling according to paper, plastic, metal or flattened corrugated cardboard. But come March, the city will roll out single-stream recycling where residents still have to separate recycling materials from the rest of their garbage — but then toss them all together in a bin.

The city will make the change for all residents at the same time, rather than using a phased approach. Deputy City Administrator Ellen Habel said this is “a big plus.”

Iowa City, North Liberty, Cedar Rapids and Marion are among the cities already offering single-stream recycling.

Implementing the start of single-stream recycling will cost Coralville about $600,000, which will be covered by grant funding and city dollars.

The city has been working on moving to single-stream “for quite a while now,” said Eric Fisher, streets and solid waste superintendent. Fisher said Coralville residents have been asking when the city would offer the service.

“We've all just had a lot of discussions over the years, and I think finally just everybody agreed it's time to move forward with it,” Fisher said.

  Buy Photo

Getting plans in place

Habel said the city has spent time studying potential benefits and issues with conversion, associated costs and feasibility.

“More recently, one of our recycling trucks is due for replacement as part of our fleet rotation program,” Habel said. “When ordering a new truck, we needed to know whether we were going to continue with our existing recycling program or convert to single stream.”

Coordinating plans and funding, as well as getting equipment ordered and delivered, has been a long process, Fisher added.

The new recycling truck costs about $300,000, and the city is using reserves from its solid waste program to pay for it. The cost per recycling cart is $63. For 4,600 carts, that comes to nearly $290,000. The 65-gallon carts likely will be delivered early next year to households. Colors of the carts have not been decided yet, Fisher said.

  Buy Photo

Sorting vs. single stream

With sorting, Fisher said, cities collect less material but there is a lower contamination rate. With single-stream, cities collect more material but there also is a higher contamination rate. Contamination means that materials are not cleaned property or are sorted into the wrong bins.

Overall, Fisher said, single-stream recycling means less material to take to the landfill.

“We hope that residents find single stream recycling more convenient than sorting their recyclables, and ultimately that we are reducing the amount of waste going to the landfill,” Habel said.

The items collected for recycling will not change, Habel said.

Outreach and education

The city was awarded a $73,600 grant from the Recycling Partnership, an organization that works with communities to transform their recycling programs. The grant will help with the purchase of recycling carts, as well as education and outreach efforts.

“This is going to be exciting for a lot of folks, and it’s been a long time coming,” Mayor Meghann Foster said at a June meeting where the Coralville City Council unanimously approved the grant agreement.

Fisher is also looking for additional funding and grant opportunities.

He also is working with the organization on the city’s education materials to help inform residents about the change and recycling best practices. The city likely will begin the education campaign around December or January, with a postcard letting residents know the new carts are coming, Fisher said.

When the carts are being delivered, there will be an informational packet attached with details about what is recyclable, what is not recyclable, common questions and answers and other information, Fisher said.

Residents will be able to re-purpose their current bins into some other use, or have the city collected them. Fisher said the city will work on a campaign on how residents could re-purpose the bins.

“We're going to do a lot of promoting,” Fisher said, adding that the increased education will hopefully reduce contamination.

Comments: (319) 339-3155; izabela.zaluska@thegazette.com