NC City Looks to Add OCC to Curb Program

City officials in Winston Salem, N.C. reached a tentative agreement with Waste Management of the Carolinas to add cardboard collection to the city's recycling program. The Finance Committee unanimously approved the resolution in a hearing held Feb. 11.

Before being the resolution is adopted, the full board of aldermen is required to hear the proposal. The full board is scheduled to consider it at its meeting Monday, Feb. 18.

In addition to adding OCC to the curbside collection program, the proposed three-year contract also would allow 2,500 small businesses and churches to participate in the program for the first time.

Under the proposal, it would cost $.25 cents per household each month to pick up OCC. The city now pays $1.98 for each single-family household a month for recycling. The city also would receive 25 percent of the profits obtained from the sale of the recyclables.

If approved, residents would be required to flatten out corrugated boxes and tie them together with twine or some other kind of fastening material besides fishing line or metal.