Tulsa Hopes To Increase Recycling By Downsizing Bins

Tulsa residents could soon have their choice of a much smaller recycling cart.  

Some residents say they like the option to downsize. The current 96-gallon cart is the only option available right now. 

Tulsa city leaders have proposed offering a cart half that size and residents say the smaller size would be easier to handle. Others like having the bigger cart, but think it's great to have the size option. 

Driving through neighborhoods in Tulsa, you'll find a mix of big, medium and little trash carts, but in front of some houses, the blue 96-gallon recycling cart towers over the others.

"I personally would prefer a smaller one, that would be nice," said Amber Rhodes. 

Rhodes has two 96-gallon carts, one for recycling and the other for trash and she says they're not easy to handle.

"I have a little bandaid on here, after I hurt myself trying to haul it to the curb the other night," said Amber Rhodes. 

Tulsa Authority for Recovery of Energy member Randi Sullivan said he's heard the complaints too. 

"Customers literally couldn't roll that big of a cart to a curb and number two if you have a one car garage and put a 96 gallon recycling cart. It takes up most of that space," said Randy Sullivan. 

He believes the solution is a smaller 48-gallon recycling cart,

"We are hoping that bringing in the smaller recycling carts wont only make it better for our customers but more of our customers will recycle," said Randi Sullivan. 

Gary Percefull with New Solutions says during the program's roll out, only one-of-every-25 homes refused the large recycling cart. In fact, 17 percent of what would've been garbage was recycled last year.

"Does it make sense for the whole program to change because of a few people. I dunno it depends on how many they are talking about," said Gary Percefull. 

However, he is open to discussing it further. 

"We will just have to sit down and visit with the city and see what they want to do," said Gary Percefull. 

"The big picture is that if you want a smaller recycling cart, there will be a way for you to achieve getting a smaller cart," said Randi Sullivan. 

New Solutions already has about 600 of the smaller recycling carts sitting in storage, so if this plan were approved the new carts wouldn't cost the city anything.