By Linda Kor The City of Winslow’s curbside recycling program is set to go into effect on Monday, April 4, in an effort to reduce waste and save money. Each resident will be provided a container. Rather than having two trash pickups a week, one will now be to pick up recyclable items. City Manager Steve Pauken is excited about the endeavor and was pleased that the city can get away from the six large recycle bins now in use throughout the city. “Having large open, unlocked bins invites all sorts of things. There’s been many times that the bins have been so contaminated that the entire load just ends up having to go to the dump,” he explained. The city put out a bid for the job and received two offers, one from Larson Waste and another from Waste Management, which just finished up a five-year contract with the city for waste disposal. The lowest offer came from Waste Management at a cost of $38,250 per month, or a total of $1,377,000 for the length of the three-year contract. The rate is an increase over the previous contract, but at this time Pauken is not planning any cost increase for citizens. “We’ll have to determine at a later date what, if any, increase will have to be made. The more people recycle, the more it will keep costs down,” said Pauken. Although there is a long list of what types of paper goods and plastics can be recycled, there will be no glass recycling. “It’s frustrating, but there’s no market for glass here. The nearest location that accepts glass is in Tucson, but the cost to transport the glass would be too much,” said Pauken, adding that they will continue searching for solutions to glass disposal. Another aspect of recycling that Paukin is looking into is cardboard pickup from local businesses. “We can make some money with cardboard. We have a truck and trailer already, and by using inmate labor and locating a cheap bailer, I think we’d only need one fulltime employee,” he said, noting that he believed the money made from selling the cardboard would pay for the employee. Residents whose current trash days are Monday and Thursday will put their trash cart out on Monday and their recycling cart out on Thursday. Residents whose current trash days are Tuesday and Friday, will put their trash cart out on Tuesday and their recycling cart out on Friday. Acceptable recyclable items include clean and dry cardboard, chipboard, aluminum cans, tin cans, newspaper (including the inserts), magazines, junk mail (self-sealing and window envelopes are OK), office paper (white, colored, manila folders and envelopes), and No. 1 and 2 plastic containers with caps and pumps removed. No other items should be placed inside curbside recycling carts. Recyclables do not include the following: bagged materials (even if they contain recyclable materials), any glass or ceramics, plastic bags, coat hangers, household items such as cooking pots, toasters, etc., flexible packaging and multi-laminated materials, wet fiber, fiber containing or that has been in contact with food debris. According to city officials, the contractor will not empty recycling containers that have ineligible materials in them. A printable list is available on the city’s website at winslowaz.gov/. For more information on the recycling program, contact the city at (928) 289-2422.