Public Works
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The City has NEW recycling trucks with automated (robotic) arms. For the trucks to operate correctly, however, there needs to be an area of clearance of three (3) feet around the carts in all directions. We ask for your assistance with the following:
Please Practice Correct Cart Placement:
~ Do not place items on top of the cart.
~ Do not lean items (bags or cardboard) against the cart or place items in front of the cart (between the cart and the street).
~ Carts need to have three (3) feet of clearance from all obstructions—other carts, trash bags, mail boxes, shrubs, light posts, utility poles, and parked cars.
~ Since collection is automated, the cart handle and wheels should face the house.
For additional information, you can download these cart-placement diagrams (in a PDF). [Please note that these diagrams say to allow "four feet" in clearance, but in the City of Kirkwood, we require only three feet.]
Parking on Collection Days: These trucks are WIDE. If you live on a narrow street, please do not park directly across from another car. The trucks may not be able to get through.
What Can Be Placed in Your Recycling Cart:
PLASTICS: Recyclable plastics have a number inside a triangle on the bottom of the container. In Kirkwood, you can recycle all of the following numbers: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, #7. This includes soda, water, and flavored beverage bottles; milk and juice jugs; detergent and fabric softener containers; health and beauty products and household cleaner containers (narrow-neck); margarine tubs, frozen dessert cups and other grocery containers; yogurt cups, narrow-neck syrup and ketchup bottles; plastic buckets (narrow-neck) such as kitty litter containers. WE DO NOT ACCEPT #6 PLASTICS OR ANY STYROFOAM.
CANS AND FOIL: Aluminum cans, trays, and foil (trays and foil must be cleaned); steel cans and tins; non-hazardous aerosol cans, such as whipped cream or cooking oil (must be empty).
GLASS: Glasss bottles and jars (clear, brown, or green). NO window glass, mirrors, dinnerware, light bulbs, or ceramics.
PAPER: Newspaper, including inserts (remove from plastic sleeves); cardboard, including pizza boxes; milk and juice cartons; magazines, catalogs, and telephone books; office and computer paper; notebook (no metal clips, spirals, or binders) and gift wrap paper ; chipboard (cereal boxes, cake and food mix boxes, gift boxes); carrier stock (soda and beer carrying cases); mail, junk mail, and envelopes; paper books (no hard-cover books). Rule of thumb: If you can tear it, you can recycle it.
What Cannot Be Placed in Your Recycling Cart:
~ Motor oil, insecticide, herbicide, paint, or hazardous chemical containers. St. Louis County plans to open a hazardous waste facility in 2013. Click here for more information about the new facility and for information on what to do with hazardous waste NOW.
~ Plastic grocery or department store bags. These bags can do serious harm to the automated machinery at the Materials Recovery facility. They can be returned to most Schnucks and Dierbergs’ grocery stores.
~ Plastic film, sheets, or wrap.
~ Styrofoam, expanded foam, or clear polystyrene (#6 plastic).
Styrofoam No Longer Collected at Scheidegger Depository
The City will no longer collect or accept Styrofoam at the Scheidegger Recycling Depository, 350 S. Taylor Avenue, effective immediately. Midwest Recycles, the City's Styrofoam hauler, informed the City that it will no longer be able to haul Styrofoam from the Depository and will remove its collection trailer on December 30. This is the decision of the recycler. However, the City is extremely disappointed and will work to find an alternative method to recycle this material.
RECYCLING TOPICS:
The City of Kirkwood added curbside recycling to its list of sanitation services on January 3. To accomplish this important launch, the City had to change sanitation routes. All customers now have all of their sanitation - all trash, recycling, and yard waste - picked up on just one day per week. For your convenience, an Excel spreadsheet is provided here with all sanitation addresses and their assigned pick-up day. You can open the file and search for your address here: Sanitation Addresses - Excel Spreadsheet. This is a PDFs (Portable Document Format) and may take a moment to open. You may also be able to use this Sanitation Route Map to help determine your sanitation collection day.
On weeks when there is an observed City holiday (see list below), all sanitation routes will be delayed by one day. For example, if a holiday falls on a Monday, ALL routes will be delayed by one day, so Monday routes get picked up on Tuesday, Tuesday routes get picked up on Wednesday, etc. If the holiday falls on a Thursday, only Thursday and Friday routes get delayed by one day. FRIDAYS: If your regular collection day is Friday and there is an observed holiday that week, your sanitation will ALWAYS be collected on Saturday.
THE FOLLOWING DATES ARE SANITATION HOLIDAYS IN 2013:
January 21 (Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday)
May 27 (Memorial Day)
July 4 (Independence Day)
September 2 (Labor Day)
November 28 (Thanksgiving)
December 25 (Christmas Day)
The City of Kirkwood led the way with recycling in the metro area in 1971 when the first St. Louis-area recycling depository was opened here—the Francis Scheidegger Recycling Depository, at 350 S. Taylor.
PLEASE NOTE: The Recycling Depository is open 24 hours per day, seven days per week.
What is accepted at the Recycling Depository?
- Telephone books
- Newspapers
- Aluminum cans
- Glass bottles, with metal removed
- Corrugated Cardboard
- Mixed paper (junk mail, boxboard, office paper, computer paper)
- Catalogs & magazines (less than 1 1/2” in thickness)
- Steel (tin) cans
- Plastic Containers: #1, #2, #3, #4, #5, & #7. Recyclable plastic containers usually are marked on the bottom, indicating the type of plastic inside the universal, triangular recycling symbol. Plastic containers for beverages, food, personal care, household products, and many other non-hazardous materials can now be recycled. See below what is not accepted.
- Tupperware is acceptable IF it has the proper plastic recyclable # on it.
- Cell phones
- Textiles (clothing, sheets, draperies, linens)
What is NOT accepted at the Recycling Depository?
- Styrofoam, or polystyrene foam, products (effective December 30, 2011).
- To avoid pollution and for health reasons, the depository cannot accept containers that held antifreeze or motor oil
- Disposable diapers, frozen food bags, or hazardous materials are not accepted
- No metal pipes, siding, any construction materials, or sheeting will be accepted.
- No trash, furniture, appliances, rugs, mattresses, sofas, yard waste / brush, tree limbs, wood, concrete, bricks, tires, batteries, oil, or scrap metal will be accepted.
How Effective is Recycling?
The objective of recycling is to divert as much trash and refuse as possible from landfills. Each month, the City compiles a
Year-to-Date Tonnage Report (below) on the materials that have been diverted from landfills by maintaining the Francis Scheidegger Recycling Depository. At the end of the year, we compile and post an End-of-Year Report (below).
END OF YEAR RECYCLING TOTALS FOR 2012
YEAR-TO-DATE RECYCLING TOTALS, January 31, 2013