Residents of Moline may soon need bigger carts for their recycling. The city council is working on plans to add glass to its single-stream, recycling program.
Rodd Schick, Municipal Services General Manager, says when the city hired Midland Davis Corporation ten years ago for curbside recycling pickup, glass was not included. But recently the Scott County recycling facility began accepting glass.
"Anything we can divert from our solid waste stream to recycling - one, is environmentally the correct thing to do, but two, the other thing is cost savings - it's less money to recycle than to landfill."
The exact cost savings isn't known because he doesn't yet know the final cost of buying new, 95 gallon carts - whether the city could buy them itself, or have to finance the purchase. They would replace the 48 gallon carts now used for recycling by most Moline residents.
Midland Davis estimates it would pick up about 26 tons of glass each month in Moline.
In addition to glass, "aseptic containers" would also be accepted - they're the juice boxes, milk cartons, and similar containers that already have the recycling symbol on them.
