No more separating empty Coke cans from old newspapers.
Recycling should not be that complicated: Just throw it all
together and then be done.
No more separating empty Coke cans from old newspapers. Recycling should not be that complicated: Just throw it all together and then be done.
So say Gilroy and South Valley Disposal & Recycling, the city’s sole waste manager. Next week the company will distribute new, all-in-one bins to residents, replacing the current two-bin system that requires recyclers to separate their magazines from their juice boxes before lugging anything out to the curb.
City residents will also get more out of their yard waste bins next year. They will be able to mix grass clippings and leaves with food scraps to create a compost bin, according to SVD&R Recycling Coordinator Julie Alter. She said residents can mix everything from chicken bones to grease-stained pizza boxes in their old yard waste bins.
Collection of the two new holistic bins will begin Jan. 14, Alter said, and residents can either put their old receptacles out for collection the week after or keep them for garage storage, which Alter said SVD&R hopes they will do.
“The recycling program will make it even easier for Gilroy residents to go green,” Alter wrote in a press release detailing the new “single-stream recycling” program.
The cornerstone of the new recycling effort is a 64-gallon blue cart complete with wheels. It will welcome residents’ aluminum, steel and tin cans, glass bottles, metal pots, plastic containers, small cardboard pieces and mixed papers including magazines, newspapers, paper bags and cereal boxes, according to Alter.
Wonderful, said Lisa Jensema, Gilroy’s Environmental Program Coordinator.
“The single stream recycling method will be more convenient and quicker for residents because it eliminates sorting,” Jensema said. “We hope to encourage city participation, thereby increasing the volume of recycling and decreasing the amount of materials going into landfills.”
Mayor Al Pinheiro agreed.
“The new recycling program will bring exceptional benefits to Gilroy,” Pinheiro told Alter. “I am looking forward to beginning this process in the community.”
None of this could be possible without SVD&R’s split-body trucks that can collect garbage and recyclables at the same time.
The only separation requirements will be for batteries, which residents should place in a zipped bag atop the new blue bin. Motor oil and oil filters need special containers to be recycled, and some items, such as light bulbs, are still banned entirely.
A complete do-and-don’t list can be found at SVD&R’s Web site.
For more information, contact SVD&R, located at 1351 Pacheco Pass Highway, by calling (408) 846-1395 or by visiting www.southvalleydisposal.com.
