“This gives us another tool to increase participation in recycling,” said Tom Ritchie Jr., Dayton’s deputy director of public works.
So far this year, about 8.5% of the waste collected in the city has been recycled and diverted away from the landfill, according to city data.
Dayton’s recycling rate has remained around 8% of waste collected going back years.
For years, the city’s annual goal has been to recycle 12% or more of the waste generated by its customers.
Ritchie, with public works, said his department will continue to work with the city’s sustainability office to try to educate residents about the benefits of recycling.
Participation in the recycling program is free and diverts many materials away from the landfill that people often throw away, including paper, cartons, cardboard and glass and plastic bottles and jars.
The city pays $38.25 per ton to dispose of trash. Recycling waste costs less and sometimes the city gets rebates.
The number of households participating in the recycling program continues to increase each year.
Ritchie said the city plans to send educational materials about recycling to people who live in neighborhoods with low recycling participation rates.
He said the city right now knows who requests recycling bins, the addresses the containers are delivered to, what routes the bins are on and how much tonnage its recycling trucks collect.
But Ritchie said the city currently has no idea which customers who have recycling bins are actually filling their containers or how often they are choosing to recycle.
Ritchie said that hopefully will change when recycling trucks are outfitted with cameras and technology that can determine which bins are being filled up and emptied during collection.
The city can use that data to send customizable educational materials to customers encouraging them to recycle or recycle more frequently, he said.
“You asked for a container, you said you wanted to participate, you got it and you haven’t been (recycling) — is there something we can help you with?” he said.
Some people might not know what items they can or cannot recycle. Ritchie said some people might benefit from setting reminders about recycling collection dates.
Some research suggests that about 75% of waste can be recycled.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that less than 40% of glass beer, soft drink, wine and liquor bottles are recycled. The agency says that about half of aluminum cans and less than a third of certain types of plastic bottles and jars are recycled.
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