Goodbye red. Hello green.

Today, 20 years after Charlotteans first put red recycling bins at the curb, they'll start rolling out green rollout containers.

They'll also start getting used to new schedules and new rules about what to recycle.

No longer will recycling employees separate papers, plastics and bottles at curbside. The new system features so-called "single-stream" recycling. That means everything from newspapers to milk cartons to aerosol cans go into the same container.

"We've been preparing for this for a couple years, so we're excited," says Brandi Williams, a spokeswoman for Solid Waste Services. "We're excited about finally being able to provide the citizens of Charlotte the service they've asked for."

Another big change is the pickup schedule.

Recycling pickups will be every other week, not weekly. "Orange" zones - where collections start this week - will alternate weeks with "Green" zones.

For four out of five Charlotteans, pickup days also will change. (If you missed the mailing about your new pickup day, call 311 or visit recycleit.charlottenc.gov.)

Garbage and yard waste collection will remain weekly, but change to the new day.

The city is selling the 51 familiar recycling trucks to help pay for the new program. In their place will be trucks contracted through the Texas-based Inland Service Corp.

Drivers will no longer have to separate recycling materials at the curb. But they will have to look into the green containers to make sure there's no garbage inside.

"It's definitely a faster process," Williams says. "They'll just kind of peek inside and make sure there's nothing in there that shouldn't be."

Residential recycling programs in most Mecklenburg County towns will remain on a weekly pickup schedule. Cornelius just moved to a biweekly collection schedule.

At a glance

Find your new schedule

Pickup schedules are changing - and not just the week. Pickup days are also changing in most cases.

To find your schedule, go to: http://recycleit.charlottenc.gov or http://maps.co.mecklenburg.nc.us/geoportal/.

What you can recycle:

For the first time, you can recycle aerosol cans, juice boxes and milk and juice cartons.

Also recycle:

Aluminum

Cardboard

Glass

Paper

Plastics 1-5 & 7

Spiral paper cans

Steel cans

Where to put the container

No more than two feet from the curb, not blocking the sidewalk.

At least three feet from a garbage container, yard waste or obstacles such as mailboxes, telephone poles or cars.

What to do with your old red recycling bin? You can use it to collect recyclables before placing them in the rollout cart. You can take it to a recycling center. Or you can place the red bin inside the 96-gallon green recycling cart to be collected with your recyclables.
 

Sign up for our Weekly Email Newsletter Email: For Email Marketing you can trust

Other Ways to Share Twitter Del.icio.us MySpace

Discussions and Submission Agreement