New wheeled bins pay off in recycling effort
The large wheeled carts North Fort Myers residents received over the winter to increase recycling have already produced big dividends.
According to recent numbers calculated by Lee County Solid Waste, Lee County residents in general are recycling more, but in areas where the larger bins have been added, the numbers are even more revealing.
The first three months of collection showed a 17 percent increase in recycling in North Fort Myers and Pine Island, and a 12 percent increase in recycling in the South Fort Myers. These were the final areas of the county to receive the new carts.
Countywide there was an 8 percent increase in recycling for March through May compared with last year.
Emory Smith, solid waste coordinator, said replacing the old 18-gallon bins with the 64-gallon wheeled carts has made a huge difference.
“I think people were filling up those old bins, didn’t have anywhere to put the rest and so they were throwing it away,” Smith said. “We gave them the additional capacity and made it easier for them to get it to the curb.”
In March, county officials distributed about 16,000 larger, 64-gallon wheeled recycling carts to replace the smaller, more cumbersome blue bins, in North Fort Myers and Pine Island.
The results were immediate as virtually every home in the area now has a cart. Smith said it just follows the trend nationwide.
Another benefit for the carts is that it reduces the county’s workman’s compensation liability, as trash companies pay some of the highest rates in the country.
“They’re not doing all that lifting on those bins anymore. They’re looking at ways to lower their insurance costs,” Smith said. “It’s all industry driven.”
Lee County Solid Waste staff worked with residents to accommodate those with space restrictions by providing smaller 32-gallon carts. Those were mostly in Pine Island.
“It’s important that we have as many households as possible participating in the curbside recycling program,” said Pam Keyes, Lee County Public Utilities Department director in a statement. “Lee County has maintained a 70 percent recycling rate during the past two years and is on track to meet the state goal of 75 percent recycling by 2020.”
All recycling revenue is returned to the system to help pay for operational costs.
Lee County Solid Waste, a division of the Public Utilities Department, is a nationally-recognized enterprise system providing residents and businesses safe, affordable waste disposal and recycling services. The system utilizes an energy-from-waste combustion process to create clean, renewable energy and single-stream recycling for material recovery.