SOLID WASTE RECYCLING PROGRAM
This past winter the City of Stamford’s Office of Operations Solid Waste Division introduced several brand new recycling trucks purchased by the City as part of a major restructuring of its recycling and solid waste programs. These changes, including switching from an outside contractor to City staff for recycling collections, as well as a switch from backyard garbage collection to semi-automated curbside collection, began in July, prompted by budget action last spring. The new recycling trucks arrived last December. They allow for the collection of both the blue and gray bins at the same time. Their design also allows for manual dumping of residential bins into troughs along either side of the trucks as well as for semi-automated tipping of larger containers, which are used at schools, condominiums, and City facilities. The new trucks are an important part of our plan to significantly increase recycling in Stamford. It is our goal to increase our recycling rate to 40%. To succeed we need to make recycling as convenient and cost effective as possible. With these trucks we can collect more materials from more locations. In addition to being environmentally friendly, it pays to recycle: - Each ton of garbage costs the City $69 to send to a landfill.
- We avoid $500,000 per year now in disposal costs and we only recycle 8% of our total residential waste.
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