Up the Single-Stream

Valparaiso, Ind., has started to implement a “no-sorting,” or single-stream, residential recycling program, according to a report in the Northwest Times (Munster, Ind.)

All recyclable items will be picked up by the same truck, mixed together and taken to the Public Works Department. There, the materials will be loaded into a bigger truck and hauled to a sorting center, the paper reports.

“It will save time and money and encourage people to recycle more because they won’t have to sort it,” Bill Oeding, Public Works director tells the Northwest Times.

According to Oeding, the old recycling program required 10 people driving four trucks. Crews sorted items at the curb, and items were transported in separate bins on the truck to the department before being baled and shipped to a recycler.

The Northwest Times reports that deteriorating equipment is a major factor in the city’s decision to try single-stream. Oeding tells the paper three of the recycling trucks need to be replaced, and if the city doesn’t sort the material, it can get by using one or two larger trucks that cost less.