City of St. Cloud and Waste Management began curbside single-stream recycling in October 2011, but when Waste Management decided to not renew its recycling service agreement with the City of St. Cloud, the city, with its new interim City Manager Bill Sturgeon, was faced with finding a new provider for the pickup and transporting of recyclable trash quickly, and that’s exactly what they did.

City of St. Cloud Public Services entered into a one-year agreement (with two one-year renewals) July 20 to haul recyclable material from its Transfer Station in St. Cloud to Republic Services of Lakeland effective immediately. Republic Services of Lakeland provides recycling services for various municipalities.

“We are very excited about having an agreement in place with Republic Services,” said Public Services’ Solid Waste Division Superintendent Ernie McDaniel. “This company has an excellent reputation and is very safety-conscience. They have advanced sorting equipment that ensures our recyclables are processed responsibly and reliably. We are excited to offer this critical service to our customers because it has such a positive impact environmentally and financially within the community we live in.”

City of St. Cloud customers will not see any changes in their curbside single-stream recycling services. City drivers haul all the curbside recyclable material to the Transfer Station on their curbside collection trucks and three full loads are placed on a City semi-truck. An average of about 14 tons is then hauled on a City semi-truck to Republic Services of Lakeland.

“While Republic Services employees sort the recyclable material we deliver, our operators do remove any obvious contaminants before hauling it to Lakeland,” explained McDaniel. “Plastics with food residue and wet paper products can become contaminants if they are disposed of incorrectly and these can slow down the recycling process. We need to recycle correctly so that we don’t endanger the line workers or damage the sorting machines. Recycling correctly will help ensure a better end product.”

Waste offers a huge negative impact on the environment and recycling helps to reduce the pollution created by waste. To assist the public in proper recycling procedures, the City of St. Cloud has provided the following recycling guidelines.

Items that are recycled:

  • Glass jars and bottles
  • Aluminum cans
  • Tin, steel and aerosol cans
  • Plastic bottles
  • Food boxes (food stains are contaminants; place stained food boxes in the garbage cart)
  • Paperback and phone books
  • Junk mail
  • Paper cardboard dairy and juice cartons
  • Paper bags
  • Office paper and file folders (without wax liners)
  • Newspapers and inserts
  • Gable top containers (such as milk and juice cartons)

    Items that are not recycled:

  • Plastic bags
  • Bottle caps
  • Styrofoam
  • Electronics
  • Hardback books
  • Ceramics or dishes
  • Food waste
  • Plastic tubes, jars and trays
  • Motor-oil containers
  • Household hazardous waste
  • Light bulbs, window glass and mirrors
  • Yard waste and trash
  • Shredded paper
  • Plastic wrappers containing newspapers (remove wrapper and recycle the newspaper)
  • Broken glass

A slideshow providing an inside look at the City of St. Cloud’s curbside single-stream recycling program and Republic Services of Lakeland recycling process is available on the City’s website at www.stcloud.org, Facebook page, Twitter page, YouTube StCloudProud Channel and SCTV 499 (cable channel 499).