Norwalk residents have overwhelmingly embraced an eco-friendly trash solution while saving the city $200,000 in the first year of its new recycling program.
Last July, the city, under its contract with City Carting & Recycling Inc., moved from sorted recycling to single-stream recycling, cutting down the time and manpower it takes to pick up waste and increasing the likelihood more residents will recycle with the simpler process.
To mark the anniversary, City Carting demonstrated outside City Hall how a mechanical claw, attached to the side of a garbage truck, lifts a 65-gallon blue bin and dumps the contents into the truck.
Jessica Paladino, the city”™s waste programs manager, said this method has increased recycling by 40 percent since the program began. That is equivalent to nearly 2,000 tons of recyclables, which has allowed the city to save about $200,000 over the year. About 25,000 blue bins have been distributed to households in Norwalk, meaning 75 to 80 percent of the city is participating in the new program.
“Any garbage that gets picked up in Norwalk, we pay for it to be disposed of,” said Department of Pulic Works Director Harold F. Alvord. “Every ton we recycle, we save $102.50.”
Another benefit is that four trucks now collect what previously required six trucks.
A resident at the ceremony asked how Norwalk intends to keep moving in the eco-friendly direction and whether it plans to sell compost as a next step.
“The problem we have is available open space,” Alvord said. “We aren”™t selling compost. We don”™t have the resources to do that right now, but we would like to gradually increase programs that are environmentally friendly in the future.”
