City works on recycling education

Todd Kucharski held a glass jar aloft Saturday morning and challenged representatives from neighborhoods across the city to tell him the proper way to dispose of the item.

Rinse it out and recycle it, one member of the audience volunteered. That’s right, Kucharski said — though he went a step further and challenged those in attendance to think about options for how to reuse the can, such as repurposing it to store food or small items.

Kucharski, the city’s public works general manager, appeared at Saturday’s Coalition of City Neighborhood Association meeting alongside Solid Waste Supervisor Jonathan Williamson to give a presentation on the city’s new single-stream recycling program. Last year, facing a prospective cost increase of $1.2 million in its agreement with contractor Waste Pro, the city decided to handle its own recycling operations. The change coincided with a switch to a system that will allow residents to place all their recyclables in the same bin.

In March, the city began distributing new recycling carts to residents in preparation for the switch. In April, the city officially took control of recycling and implemented the switch to the single-stream system. 

That’s why Kucharski and Williamson’s presentation included a game show of sorts called “Where to Put It.” The city staff members quizzed the neighborhood leaders on how to dispose of yogurt containers (wash it out and recycle it), plastic bags (don’t put it in your recycling bin; bring it to a grocery store such as Publix or find a way to repurpose it) and electronic items (place them on your curb and the city will pick it up within 48 hours).