East Lansing Residents Receive New Recycling Carts

During the past week, you may have noticed the large green rolling recycling bins appearing at houses and apartment complexes across East Lansing. These 96-gallon carts, funded by a grant from The Recycling Partnership, aim to expand the list of possible recyclables the city accepts. The list of new recyclables is available here.

Recyclables will now be accepted only every other week, as opposed to the old weekly system. Half of the town will recycle one week, and half on alternate weeks, as can be seen on this map and schedule that outlines the new zones.

City officials hope and expect that the new container, over five times larger than the previously used blue bins, will up the volume of recycling, especially with the inclusion of boxboard. The City is expecting a 40-60% increase in the amount recycled.

Catherine DeShambo, the City’s Environmental Services Administrator cites adaptation to single-stream recycling, collector safety, efficiency, and EL’s Climate Sustainability plan as some drivers of the shift to the new program. “Sometimes in communities there are changes proposed that only residents desire or changes proposed that only City officials and stakeholders desire. In our case, we had both. Residents have been requesting this change for some time and their request was well supported within our City government.”

Looking forward, De Shambo also has hopes for a mid-Michigan exclusive material recovery facility, explaining that “all of our recyclables in the region have to be trucked to the West, East or Northern parts of the state. This hauling increases costs for region.” The recent agreement to combine recyclables with Lansing, she hopes, makes a stronger case for this potential facility

The new carts are larger than the standard 64-gallon black refuse containers, a size explained by the more limited pickup schedule. That said, their base is only 3 inches wider, so they shouldn’t take up too much ground space.

Carts are scheduled for delivery at some point this week (the week of September 28^th), and should come with an attached collection schedule and list of accepted items. They are completely free to residents. The city of East Lansing advises that the carts be set out on pick up days similarly to garbage carts: with three feet of clearance and facing the road.

The city will no longer accept the use of the old recycling bins for pickup at the curb, though residents are permitted to keep the bins, for personal use, or may place the bins on the curb on the first day of the new system, so they, themselves, may be recycled.

This Sunday, October 4^th, a “Cart Bash” will take place with this year’s “Autumn Fest” at the EL farmers’ market. It will include games, giveaways, and information about recycling. The Autumn Fest will also feature free donuts and apple cider. Both will be held 10am-2pm in Valley Court Park