City considers curbside recycling

Mountain Home City Council is considering an ordinance to implement curbside recycling within city limits.

Currently the city offers a voluntary recycling service at the Parks, Recreation and Environmental Department. Although the program has proven successful, it has been costly to operate. Recognizing that recycling saves resources and helps extend the life of landfills, the city's long-term plan was to be able to offer curbside recycling.

Mountain Home Disposal has put forth a proposal to implement just such a program within the city limits for residential customers.

With access to curbside service, residents will be able to set out plastics (must have a threaded neck and have a 1,2, or 3 within the triangular recycle symbol), aluminum/tin/steel (aerosol cans must be empty), newspaper (includes advertising inserts), magazines/catalogs, mixed paper (includes junk mail, envelopes, cereal boxes and paper), cardboard (folded and placed under the bin), and used motor oil (up to two gallons per week in a transparent jug and set next to the recycling bin).

Recyclables will be picked up on the same day as your trash service. Residential customers within Mountain Home will be provided with an 18-gallon blue recycling bin. Each bin will come with more detailed information on how to collect and sort the recyclables.

To help keep costs down, recyclables must be sorted into paper bags within the bin. The paper bags will be left for you to use again.

Additional material that will not fit inside the blue bin may be contained in boxes or other small containers and set out next to the blue bin for collection.

The curbside collection service would mean a small increase (about $1.80) in disposal fees.

Residents will find information included with this month's water bills and company representatives will be meeting with area civic groups to provide more information on the curbside recycling proposal.

For more information about the service, contact the Mountain Home Parks and Recreation Department at 587-2112 or call Mountain Home Disposal's recycling specialist at 685-7739.