Curbside Recycling Sign Ups Hit 10,000

Communications Director

Kristin Farley
[email protected]
(865) 215-2589

400 Main St., Room 691
Knoxville, TN 37902

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Curbside Recycling Sign Ups Hit 10,000

Posted: 05/25/2011
The City of Knoxville's Public Service Department reported today that more than 10,000 of the city's eligible households have signed up for the new curbside recycling program.

The milestone marks the halfway point to the city's goal of signing up 20,000 Knoxville households to take part in the single-stream recycling program that begins in October. The halfway point was reached a little more than a month after the city began signing residents up for the program on April 21.

"The program allows city residents who currently receive weekly city trash pickup service to participate in a new curbside recycling program," said David Brace, deputy director of the City's Public Service Department. "We're pleased with the number of signups so far as we are halfway to the initial goal, and we're still in May. I think that shows the depth of interest that many Knoxville residents have in recycling."

In addition to reaching the 10,000 household mark, Brace and Knoxville Fire Department Deputy Chief Roger Byrd announced that each of the KFD's 21 stations will participate in the curbside recycling program.

"The fire stations are essentially residences for the firefighters who live, sleep and eat while on duty. It makes good sense to provide a recycling program at these locations," said Deputy Chief Byrd.

A list of KFD stations can be found at www.knoxvilletn.gov/kfd.

As of May 25, 6,831 residents had signed up for the curbside recycling program. Another 3,323 Knoxville residents who are customers of the existing

Waste Connections curbside recycling program are automatically included in the City's new program. That raises the total number of households in the city that are signed up for the program to 10,154.

The single-stream, curbside model makes recycling as easy as throwing away the trash since residents would no longer have to separate recyclable items or take them to a drop center. Instead they would simply place the recyclable materials into the cart, which will be picked up at the curb every other week by the City's garbage contractor, Waste Connections.

The city has been working for several years to develop a city-wide curbside recycling program in response to citizen requests for it and to reduce the amount of material going into the landfill. "We need our customers to help us spread the word about the new recycling program and encourage their friends, neighbors and family to sign up," says Brace.

Residents can sign up for the new curbside recycling program at www.doyourpartwiththecart.com. They can also sign up by simply calling 311 or 215-4311.