KINGSTON, N.Y. - Additional recycling totes will be distributed to city residents starting March 25 so that cardboard and paper recyclables can be separated from glass, plastic and metal.
The city's return to so-called "dual stream" recycling was necessitated by the Ulster County Resource Recovery Agency's decision to stop accepting commingled, or single-stream, loads in which all recyclables are placed in a single tote for pickup.
The agency initially planned to stop accepting commingled loads at its facility in the town of Ulster at the end of 2018, but it extended the deadline to the end of February and ultimately the end of March because Kingston needed more time to get the extra totes.
The new totes will be blue with a yellow lid. They'll be delivered to homes in Kingston by the vendor, Cascade Engineering, through early April, the city said in a press release on Wednesday.
Additionally, starting in early April, city public works employees will remove the existing blue or black lids from residents' current blue totes and replace them with new blue ones.
Under the new system, which takes effect April 1, paper and cardboard recyclables will be put in the new blue totes with the yellow lids and be placed curbside every other week for pickup, the city said. Glass, plastic, and metal recyclables will go in the current blue totes and be placed curbside the alternating weeks.
City trash pickup, from residents' brown totes, will continue to be carried out weekly.
Businesses that currently have municipal collection without brown or blue totes also will be switching to dual-stream recycling and should separate paper and cardboard into a separate bin, the press release said.
"The [recycling] industry is changing, and we have to change with it," Kingston Mayor Steve Noble said in the release. "Recycling is an important part of helping to reduce our waste disposal costs and to improve the environment."
The Resource Recovery Agency said it no longer can accept single-stream loads because there is a diminishing market for them.
A public informational meeting about the city's recycling transition is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, March 21, in City Hall, 420 Broadway.
Additionally, each Kingston residence will be mailed information outlining the changes, including the new collection schedule. And the new totes will come with instructions about what to place in them.
More information is available online at www.kingston-ny.gov/recycle. People with additional questions should call (845) 338-2114 or email recycling@kingston-ny.gov.
Edward Norman, Kingston's superintendent of public works, said the city is "doing everything we can to make this transition as smooth as possible, and we encourage residents to contact us if they have any questions or concerns.