In an effort to keep the convenient Recycling Drop Centers open, the City of Douglas would like to strongly urge citizens to properly dispose the correct items at the three centers. These drop centers are located at Public Works, Fire Station #3 (near airport) and Fire Station #1 (Gordon St.). The City of Douglas was recently notified, by Transwaste, that they have been experiencing great volumes of contaminated loads of recyclables, collected from the drop centers. Recycling has numerous environmental benefits and saves energy, conserves natural resources, limits pollution, and supports several sectors of the economy.
“During the initial startup of the recycling program and prior to door to door recycling, blue dumpsters were placed in three locations for the convenience of residents to dispose of their recyclables”, says City Manager Terrell Jacobs. “We want to continue to provide these recycling centers for our citizens; however, we need our citizens and those using the recycling dumpsters to not contaminate by dumping soiled paper, plastic and aluminum items. One misuse of the recycling dumpsters can make it hard for Transwaste to effectively use the recyclables. As city manager, I am urging citizens to use the dumpsters, but, to only place clean, non-food recyclable items in the dumpsters. Ways that citizens could help would be to please rinse any plastic and aluminum containers and if the paper item are soiled to not dispose with recyclables, but with regular garbage, same for plastic and aluminum.”
The City plans to place signage at each site regarding the correct items that should be placed in the recycling dumpsters. Acceptable items are newspaper, magazines, phone books, catalogs, cardboard boxes, food boxes that are clean of food material, shoe & gift boxes, office paper, junk mail, frozen food boxes that are free of food contamination, aluminum beverage cans that are empty and rinsed out, plastic bottles that have lids removed and the container has been rinsed out and is empty. All plastics must be a bottle or jug – no plastic toys, baskets, trays, rubber hoses, or swimming pools. Other items that are not acceptable include polystyrene, Styrofoam, glass, plastic grocery bags, batteries, and hazardous waste and wood materials.
For more information on recycling, please visit our website at www.cityofdouglas.com/recycling or call 912-389-3450.
