February 5, 2024 |
Photo – Trash located in recycling bins in Rawlins – Courtesy City of Rawlins
The city of Rawlins is shutting down the recycling bins located around town because citizens are misusing them to avoid paying trash pick-up fees.
As part of the policy change, the City of Rawlins will only receive recyclables at the Recycling Center during open hours. The hours of the recycling center are expanding to include Mondays.
The change is the result of what the city describes as “misuse” of the drop-off bins on Dayley and Kootz Streets. In a release on Friday, city officials reported that 7,460 pounds of non-recyclable waste have been improperly disposed of in the bins.
The city reports that the misuse of the recycling bins by residents who have dumped household waste in the bins to avoid trash pick-up fees or going to the dump as resulted in financial losses at the landfill. According to a news release, construction materials, rotting household trash, diapers, bags of dog excrement, and more have been dumped into the recycling bins.
The resulting loss of landfill fees and staff time to separate the trash impacts the financial health of both the landfill and the recycling center.
The Recycling Center accepts Aluminum Cans (for cash), Cardboard, Paper Board, Clear Plastics #1, Colored Plastics #2, Milk Jugs, Glass, Paper, and Clean Steel Cans. Our staff is always willing to help unload materials.
Photographs provided by the city show that residents have discarded used coolers, bags of discarded food, window blinds, buckets, plastic containers, children’s toys, fencing materials, vacuum cleaners, baby strollers, and other common household waste that needs to go to the dump.
The Recycling Center will now be open Monday-Friday from 8 am to 5 pm as well as Saturday from 8 am to noon
