Municipal News

Toledo to Get Expanded Curbside Service

Toledo, Ohio, residents are expected to have curbside recycling service by May, according to the city’s administrator of solid waste. The change coincides with a proposed contract that could add materials such as magazines to recyclables placed at the curb.

Currently, about 40% of Toledo households have curbside recycling, with a goal of at least 80% to have the service.

Requirements of the Lucas County Solid Waste Management District and the Ohio EPA have prompted the changes in Toledo’s current recycling program. Curbside service began in 1989 and has progressed to pickup every other week with residents using their own containers marked with stickers from the city.

These two cost cutting measures have allowed the city to expand the current program.

Paper Listings Now Online

More than 500 papers with recycled, tree-free or chlorine-free content is now available at Conservatree.com from Conservatree in the “Guide to Environmentally Sound Printing and Writing Papers.” The comprehensive listing includes environmental printing and writing papers available in the U.S. and Canada.

Executive director Susan Kinsella of Conservatree, San Francisco, says interest in the listing stemmed from a lack of information on purchasing recycled content paper. “We’ve been hearing from a lot of purchasers the past several years who would be interested in switching to recycled paper but don’t know where to get it,” she says. “What we’ve seen is that the market is slipping in part because people don’t know what is available or where to get it. Plus there is a fair amount of misinformation.”

One common misconception Kinsella has seen is people think recycled content paper is more expensive or doesn’t work as well, when often, they are comparing different grades of paper for prices or are using the wrong paper for the job. She says recycled content paper can be interchangeable with virgin stock paper, if the right grade is used in the application.