Resident Suggests Biweekly Recycling Pick-Up – What Do You Think?

A Rochester Hills resident suggested that city leaders conduct a survey of residents to see how many homes do not set out their recycling bins — and to do a spot check to see how many bins are only half full.*

Resident Lee Zendel offered the idea Monday night in the public comments section of Rochester Hills City Council's regular meeting.

"I have a feeling that the vast majority of residents by now only fill their recycle bin less than half full each week, especially those who crush their recyclable boxes and plastic bottles," Zendel said. "As such, a bi-weekly recycle pickup schedule would reduce the number of garbage truck miles on the city's streets by 25 percent."

Rochester Hills converted to a citywide waste hauler service in 2009; part of that conversion was the introduction of curbside recycling. Residents have two containers: a 95-gallon cart for trash and a 65-gallon cart for recycling. Both are picked up and emptied each week by Allied Waste. Separate trucks are used for the pick-ups.

There are no plans in the city, currently, to adopt a biweekly recycling pick-up schedule.

Council president Greg Hooper said that for him, the recycling bin is used more often than the trash bin. He said recycling has been on the rise in his own home, as is evidenced in the city.

Councilmember Ravi Yalamanchi agreed that he thought, overall, the curbside recycling has been successful.

Mayor Bryan Barnett said Rochester Hills is "reinventing" the way it recycles and  that some of the more progressive communities have gone to an every-other-week schedule for trash — not recycling.

* CORRECTION: An earlier version of the story stated that Zendel suggested that an every-other-week pickup of curbside recycling would save money and could save on drivers. In fact, Zendel suggested city leaders survey residents to get a better idea of whether they use the curbside recycling bins and how full the bins are. Also, Patch incorrectly reported that Zendel said he drags his own half-full recycling bin to the curb each week.

What do you think? Would you support a biweekly recycling pickup or would your recycling cart overflow?