So Long Single Sort – Shakopee Residents Must Still Separate Recycling

At its June 5 meeting, the Shakopee City Council rejected a proposal from Dick’s Sanitation to convert city residents covered under the city’s garbage collection contract to a single-sort recycling system, in exchange for a five-year extension of the contract with the city. 

While several council members acknowledged they had no service problems with Dick's, they felt that it was time to put the contract out for competitive proposals from other companies, Shakopee City Administrator Mark McNeill said.

The current contract expires on May 31, 2014, so recycling will continue with the current "two sort" system until that time. City staff will return to the council at a later date to discuss what different options the council will want in a new contract, McNeill said. It is anticipated that requests for proposals will be issued during the first half of 2013.

With single-sort recycling, residents would receive a larger, wheeled cart with a lid where they can place all of their recyclable items (paper, glass, plastics, etc.) without sorting them. The carts would be picked up curbside every other week, rather than the current weekly schedule, which would reduce the amount of traffic and wear on the streets.

According to McNeill, the city often receives requests to go to single-sort recycling.

Currently, residents are asked to separate their recycling into two categories and place items in bags in the open container to leave at the curb weekly.

The first category of recycled items includes: 

Newsprint 

Office Paper & Junk Mail

Catalogs & Phone Books
(No more than 2 per week)

Wet Strength Cardboard 
(Such as pop, cereal or beer packages. No pizza boxes, please, since they have food on them.)

Corrugated Cardboard 
(Such as mail order or shipping boxes. Flatten and tie into 2' x 2' bundles no more than 6" thick.)

Category two includes:

Glass food and beverage containers 
(No mirrors, ceramic, window glass or light bulbs.)

Plastic bottles and food containers
(Such as cottage cheese or yogurt containers, pop bottles, milk jugs, etc. No Tupperware or buckets and no plastic bags.)

They also ask that people rinse all items and remove caps and rings. People can also ask for a second free container if their recycling doesn't fit into the one provided.