Campaign also hopes to increase number of those participating in program
As much as 30% of Morgantown’s residential recycling is contaminated and ends up in a landfill.
Reducing that number is the aim of a multi-pronged campaign that will include teams of volunteers sorting through residential recycling bins in an attempt to educate residents and intercept contaminants.
Vanessa Reaves, the city’s recycling manager, explained that, beginning in August, bins containing contamination will get an “Oops” tag and will not be collected until the contamination is removed. The tag will include information about why the bin was rejected.
“Originally, we planned to begin inspecting bins in neighborhoods in May. Because of the pandemic, it put that on hold. So we’ll be starting that in August,” Reaves said. “The original plan was to get all of Morgantown. … With the shortened timeframe, I don’t think we’re going to get all of the residents.”
The inspections are one of the initiatives funded by a $36,786 REAP grant from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection secured by the Morgantown Green Team in October. That grant also pays Reaves’ part-time salary and funds outreach to schools within the city.
Other anti-contamination efforts include recycling guides that were mailed along with trash bills in late March and an increase in information available online through social media and the website recyclerightmorgantown.com.
That website contains the current guidelines for single stream recycling, the Recycle Right brochure — which is also available at city facilities — and a recycling survey that could result in three free months of trash and recycling service for respondents living within the city.
Additionally, there is a link at the site for anyone who would like to volunteer as a Recycle Right bin inspector.
Reaves said the overall goal is to bring contamination numbers down. She said the inspections will provide feedback in real time.
“We have three target areas planned. With each area we’re going to do a pre- and a post-recycling audit at the Mountaineer Transfer Station. That’ll give us a gauge of what the overall contamination level is,” Reaves said. “It’s going to be an experiment to see how much of an improvement we can make with our efforts. If we don’t see a big improvement, that’ll tell us we need to adjust what we’re doing.”
But education and inspections only impact those customers choosing to recycle.
According to quarterly reports filed by Republic, less than half the city’s residential trash customers recycle — 47% in Q4 2019 and 46% in Q1 2020.
Morgantown Communications Manager Andrew Stacy said Republic plans to dig into those numbers in the coming months.
“They believe the biggest gap comes from the student areas, but it is hard to say precisely where the gap is without more data,” Stacy said.
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