Residents of the city of Oshkosh are beginning to adjust to the new single-stream recycling system that replaced the old dual-stream system on Oct. 5.
According to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Web site, single-stream recycling is more efficient and easier for residents to use than the old dual-stream recycling system was.
“Single-stream (also known as “fully commingled”) recycling refers to a system in which all paper fibers and containers are mixed together in a collection truck, instead of being sorted into separate commodities (newspaper, cardboard, plastic, glass, etc.) by the resident and handled separately throughout the collection process,” the Web site said, “In single-stream, both the collection and processing systems must be designed to handle this fully commingled mixture of recyclables.”
The system decreases the amount of manpower needed, which will free up some workers and make them available to do different jobs, according to James Hintz, sanitation supervisor for the city of Oshkosh.
“We went to the system because it is more efficient when it comes to the use of manpower and equipment,” Hintz said. “We used to have to have three trucks, with two guys on each truck, but now we only have to have two trucks with one guy on each one, which frees up guys to do other things.”
According to Hintz, Oshkosh is by far not the first city to use the single stream recycling system.
In fact, many of Oshkosh’s neighboring cities have been using the system for a while.
“What prompted Oshkosh to start single-stream recycling was the fact that Brown, Outagamie and Winnebago counties work together in what is called a tri-county partnership,” Hintz said. “So they funded the facility that is located up in Appleton, and that prompted communities in this area to get on board with that.”
Since the city of Oshkosh has started the single-stream recycling program, there has already been an increase in the amount of recyclables being processed, which shows that more people are recycling, according to Hintz.
“History has shown that people recycle more when it is made easier for them,” Hintz said. “Since everything goes into one cart now, more people are recycling. We have already shown a 9 percent increase in our tonnage from the start, and we just started Oct. 5. We think that it’s pretty impressive to have that much of an increase already.”
Along with the new single-stream system comes a new schedule for pick up, which has caused some confusion among residents, according to Kevin Uhen, street, sanitation and central garage superintendent for the city of Oshkosh. “We now pick up the recyclables every other week; it’s not a weekly pick up anymore,” Uhen said. “Since it is every two weeks, it’s a little more efficient but also a little bit more confusing to those who are new at it. We want the community and the college area to look clean, and if everybody could just help with getting their carts out on the right collection day, and making sure that it gets moved back to the house or apartment area after collection, it would make a big difference.”
Uhen also mentioned that students can visit the city’s Web site to find more information about single-stream recycling and to see a calendar of the scheduled collection days.
Although the city has decided to go with this new single-stream system, the Oshkosh campus has decided to stay with the dual-stream system.
According to Michael Lizotte, director of sustainability at the UW-Oshkosh, the University has a different contract, which does not allow them to switch to the new system at this time.
“The university does not take part in single-stream recycling because we have our own contract with another company for picking up trash and recyclables,” Lizotte said. “This raises some interesting issues because it will change peoples’ habits. People in most communities in the United States are used to doing some kind of sorting and now we will have two different systems.”
Lizotte also said some kind of sanitation plan is next on the list for the people working in the sustainability office at the University.
“The next thing on the list will probably be a solid waste plan,” Lizotte said. “It’s another one of the areas that we are working on. We would rather do it sooner and have a plan in place before our contract with our current waste removal company is up.”
Lizotte also said that although the campus is not going with the single-stream system right now, students should still be active recyclers.
“The city has fairly low recycling rates, and we as a University should be able to do much better than that,” Lizotte said. “We are not as private as individual families who recycle so we should be able to keep tabs on each other and make sure we are recycling more.”
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