Kentucky city launches paper recycling pilot project

The city of Lexington, Kentucky, has announced plans to trial a new pilot program for its recycling center. Starting the week of Oct. 14, city employees were asked to put clean, dry paper in bins located throughout the Lexington City Hall marked as “paper only,” including old magazines, mass mailings, sorted office paper and other paper products can be put in these bins. 

In May, the city’s material recovery facility, the Lexington Recycle Center, had to temporarily suspend paper recycling as a result of the overabundance of recovered fiber in domestic markets. The city had stated that it did not have adequate space to store recovered fiber long term or in large quantities. Since then, the city has been working to improve its recycling program. In June, the city hired the consulting firm Resource Recycling Systems (RRS), headquartered in Ann Arbor, Michigan, to help the city improve its recycling program. 

During the pilot program, Lexington’s Division of Waste Management will issue a new request for proposal (RFP) to explore options for community-wide paper recycling. The results of the pilot program should help shape responses to the RFP and will inform the city’s assessment of those responses.

In the meantime, the city is encouraging residents to continue reducing paper use as much as possible. The city has shared some paper reduction tips on its website, along with recent information on the city’s recycling program.