Georgia City to Begin Recycling Junk Mail

Starting in March, residents of Decatur, GA, will add junk mail and boxboard to the city’s curbside program. Last week the Decatur City Council approved a change in its contract with Browning-Ferris Industries to stop picking up glass, but start accepting different types of paper products, beginning with the March pickup. The decision to drop glass would have saved 5 cents per household, but city officials instead decided to expand paper recycling.

Glass has to be in nearly perfect condition for it to be recycled, said Phil Schmidt, BFI’s sales manager. Any other products thrown away like plate glass, Corning bowls, or mirrors can cause an entire shipment to be rejected by a recycling plant.

Beginning in March, residents can recycle regular mail, bulk business mail, office paper, flyers, white and colored paper, computer paper, all school paper, and paperboard such as cereal, cracker and shoe boxes, officials said.

The change does not include paper bags, wrapping paper or hardbound books.

The new recyclables will go to Pratt Mill in Conyers, Ga., to be made into linerboard and corrugated cardboard.

Decatur began its recycling program in 1992 after the state mandated that landfills must reduce their intake by 25 percent. Decatur achieves this with curbside recycling and by composting yard debris. BFI collected 1,237 tons of recyclables from Decatur curbsides in 2002, saving the landfill 13,360 cubic yards of space, a BFI spokeswoman said.

In addition to paper, the city recycling program also accepts aluminum, steel, tin, newspapers, magazines, No. 1 and No. 2 plastic bottles, dry cell batteries in bags, and motor oil in clear containers beside recycling bins.

The city pays BFI $415,000 annually to conduct the recycling program. Residents pay $1.90 per month per household. About 17,800 residents have curbside recycling, Schmidt said. About 70 percent fill their blue bin and put it by their curb at least once a month.