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Ann Arbor adopts single-stream recycling program

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

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Ann Arbor

Recycling in Ann Arbor is changing this week now that the Ann Arbor City Council has given the green light for single stream residential recycling.

The time-honored tradition of sorting recyclables will soon be gone, allowing city residents to put out all of their recycling in one new container. The new system, set to begin this year, will supposedly allow residents to recycle even more materials in process called a single-stream.

The recycled waste will be sorted out at the recycling plant, making the process more user-friendly. While some critics contend that contamination from mixed waste decreases the quality of recyclables, supporters say this loss is more than compensated for through increases in recycling rates. Ann Arbor officials hope the new system will bump up the city's 50 percent recycling average to 70 percent by 2012. Other cities have already made the jump to single-stream recycling, including Austin, Texas and Baltimore, MD.

Ann Arbor will invest $3.5 million into upgrades at its recycling facility to accommodate this transition. The staff levels would stay the same with machines handling the extra sorting. The switch would also require new recycling containers, costing $1.3 million. Gone will be the green and brown bins. Replacing them will be one large container.

Each of these containers will come with a bar code as part of the RecycleBank system, which rewards recyclers with coupons and prizes in proportion to how much they recycle. This system has helped significantly increase recycling efforts in both Rochester Hills and Westland, MI.

Source: City of Ann Arbor
Writer: Jon Zemke