Bloomington Sanitation Division Updates Recycling Info On Carts

(BLOOMINGTON) – Staff from the Sanitation Division are currently applying a new informative sticker to the lid of each residential recycling cart on residents’ regular trash/recycling day. 

Over the next two weeks, residents are asked to leave their recycling containers at the curb after collection to allow staff the opportunity to complete this task.  Sanitation personnel wearing high visibility safety vests identifying them as City of Bloomington employees will be arriving at each scheduled recycling stop to update each recycling cart. 

The new stickers will provide updated information about recycling procedures, items accepted for recycling, and those items that cannot be collected as recyclables.  Changes in the global recycling market have resulted in the removal of certain items – such as styrofoam – from the list of items that may be recycled locally, as displayed on the stickers originally created three years ago.  

Current guidelines for the City’s recycling collection program include the following:

  • Styrofoam items, pizza boxes, plastic film, and grocery bags will not be collected.
  • All items placed in recycling carts must be free of food contamination and rinsed.  Cleaning recyclables minimizes the chance that they will contaminate the other materials in a resident’s recycling cart.
  • Any cart that contains non-recyclable or compromised items cannot be collected.   Sanitation personnel will place a notice on the cart indicating why it was not collected.  
  • All recycling items should remain loose in the cart and never be bagged. 
  • The lid of the recycling cart must be completely closed.
  • Sanitation carts should be placed at the curb no later than 5 a.m. on the resident’s regularly scheduled service day, and be placed at least four feet away from each other.
  • For more detailed information regarding items that are accepted for recycling and those that are non-recyclable, as well as weekly collection schedules, please visit the Sanitation Division’s website or contact (812) 349-3443.