Baltimore Rolling Out 190K New Recycling Carts Over The Next 5 Months
BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- Baltimore City will begin rolling out free recycling carts to thousands of households starting September 28.
Between September and February, the Department of Public Works plans to deliver 190,000 rolling, lidded, 65-gallon recycling carts to eligible homes in the city, free of charge. Any home that has garbage services provided by Baltimore is eligible to receive a cart.
The $9.5 million project consists of a $3 million total investment from The Recycling Partnership, which includes $1.65 million from the beverage industry, a plastic resin donation for recycling carts from Dow Packing & Specialty Plastics, and lidded rollout carts manufactured by Rehrig Pacific, as well as a $3 million investment from Closed Loop Partners' Infrastructure Fund.
The city will begin a recycling education campaign to inform the community about the new carts and what can and cannot be recycled.
Approximately 40 million new pounds of recyclables per year, or an 80 percent increase in recyclables per household, could be generated by providing Baltimore households with recycling carts, according to an estimate from The Recycling Partnership and Closed Loop Partners.
Baltimore is the eighth-largest city in the United States without universal cart recycling access, according to a DPW statement.
In identifying options for improving solid waste diversion, the city's Less Waste, Better Baltimore Plan said providing residents with a free recycling cart would be key. Before this, city residents had to provide their own carts during the weekly recycling collections.
Using larger-capacity, lidded recycling carts will allow for safer and more efficient collection, reducing the amount of manual labor needed, helping to prevent injury to collection staff while providing residents with increased storage capacity for their recyclables at the same time, according to the DPW statement.
Old recycling bins can be kept for storage or disposed of at a Residential Drop Off Center.
Those who receive a recycling cart, but don't want it can opt-out by calling 311.
