City Reminding Tulsa Recyclers To 'Focus On The Four'

Many people are still mixing their trash with the recycling, which is why the City of Tulsa launched a new P.R. campaign Tuesday that explains how to recycle.

Tuesday, October 14th 2014, 10:49 pm



Many people are still mixing their trash with the recycling, which is why the City of Tulsa launched a new P.R. campaign Tuesday that explains how to recycle.

It's an expensive problem for the city, which ends up paying twice because of the mix-up.

The city and taxpayers pay a fee for processing recyclables, but the trash has to be picked out then hauled a second time for disposal, and that costs more.

That's why the city is willing to spend $300,000 to make sure people know what to do.

Trash customers in Gilcrease Hills put their bins out Tuesday, ready for the next day's pickup.

The problem is not the recyclables in the trash, it's the trash is in the recycling bin.

Some customers can't figure why other folks are confused, or just don't care to do it right.

"Do I have any questions about what should and shouldn't be recycled, no I do not," said recycler Angela Angel.

After two years of the new system, Tulsans are still putting too much trash in the blue bins. 27 percent of what's in there is eventually sorted out and thrown away; the goal is to get that under 15 percent.

Out of 1,700 tons of recycling sorted per month, 400 tons is really just trash.

Maureen Turner with the City of Tulsa said, "I think when we kicked off the program, it was a lot of ‘do this, don't do this,' it was a little bit confusing."

That's why new billboards are up, to simplify the message into "focusing on the four" common items: steel, paper products - like boxes - plastic and glass.

According to the city, most people get it mostly right. About 75 percent of what's in there can be recycled, but that leaves a lot people, maybe doing “hopeful recycling,” - putting things like sticks in there that really can't go through the recycling system.

"I think you've got a little bit of both. You've got people who want to do the right thing, but in the beginning, we made it so complicated," Turner said.

The city has auditors out checking individual carts and they find all sorts of things that shouldn't be in there.

7/1/2014 Related Story: City Sending Auditors To Inspect Tulsa Recycling Carts

Despite that effort, the city said, over time, the contamination has gotten worse.

The haulers don't have time to check every cart before it's dumped, so usually everything in the bin goes in the truck and it's sorted out later.

The sticker on the lid is still accurate, and the city website has an exact list, but the city is encouraging people who aren't sure if something can be recycled to just throw it out with the trash.

logo

Get The Daily Update!

Be among the first to get breaking news, weather, and general news updates from News on 6 delivered right to your inbox!

More Like This

October 14th, 2014

March 14th, 2024

December 4th, 2023

September 25th, 2023

Top Headlines

March 28th, 2024

March 28th, 2024

March 28th, 2024

March 28th, 2024