City of Newark officials this week walked back threats to issue fines for improper recycling, but they are still asking residents to make sure their recycling carts are free of trash and other contaminants.
On Monday, the city posted a message on its Facebook page stating that later this month, it would start fining residents $100 if workers found improper items in their recycling cart. After criticism on social media, officials deleted the message and replaced it with one focused on educating people about what can and cannot be recycled.
“Unfortunately, the message that went out, went out in error,” Public Works Director Tim Filasky said. “It was a draft, basically, and it went out and said that fines were associated with it. And obviously that's the first thing people pick up on is, ‘I don't want to be fined for not recycling properly.'”
Filasky said that instead of fines, the city will continue to ask for voluntary compliance and offer educational outreach to residents.
Starting next week, refuse workers will do a “recycling audit” of all customers. Before dumping recycling carts, workers will open the lid and look for any items that cannot be recycled. Those items will be left behind along with a note explaining to the resident why they don’t belong in the recycling cart.
“We don't want to fine you,” Filasky said. “If we find contamination, we want to educate them.”
He said fines would only be issued as a last resort in the most egregious cases after a resident ignores multiple warnings.
He acknowledged that fining people for mistakenly recycling the wrong thing would only lead to people choosing not to recycle.
“We want to recycle and we want to recycle correctly,” Filasky said.
The city has always done periodic checks of recycling carts but is making more of a concerted effort now because the Delaware Solid Waste Authority is cracking down on contaminated recycling dropped off at its sorting facility.
Under an agreement with DSWA, the city does not pay to drop off recycling. However, if DSWA finds excessive contamination in the loads the city is dropping off, it will bill the city.
Filasky said the most common contaminant is plastic bags. While bags can be dropped off at many grocery stores for recycling, they cannot be recycled through Delaware’s single-stream recycling program because they clog the sorting machines.
Recyclables should be deposited into recycling carts loose, not in bags.
