Lexington recycling center to temporarily close in January. Find out why.
Planning to a host a New Year’s Eve blow out?
Make sure those empty bottles and cans make it into the recycling bin this week.
Lexington will close its recycling center from Jan. 6 to Jan. 19 for much-needed repairs to its Thompson Road facility.
Recyclables —which are now limited to glass, some cardboard, plastic bottles with caps and aluminum — will not be collected during that time, Lexington city officials warn.
Those who want to recycle should hold those items until recycling resumes the week of Jan. 20. Lexington divides the city into five zones for residential garbage and recyclable collection with pickups normally scheduled on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday or Friday. A small area downtown has daily collection.
While collections of recyclables are paused, a new conveyor belt and fire protection system will be installed. Lexington, like many cities, has a single-stream recycling system. That means all recycling goes onto one main belt and is sorted at the Thompson Road location.
“These changes are long overdue,” said Nancy Albright, Lexington’s commissioner of environmental quality and public works. “The new equipment will prevent breakdowns and make our service more reliable.”
The aging single-stream system has had frequent failures over the years, resulting in shutdowns of one or more days.
The recycling center only has one main belt. That means if there is a mechanical issue on any part of that line, the entire system has to stop.
In addition to a new conveyor belt and fire protection system, other updates include new heaters, a new separator to more efficiently sort aluminum cans and new gas and water lines.
The upgrades are part of a $2 million investment in the recycling center, city officials said.
Lexington, like many other cities, had to suspend paper recycling in May after it could no longer find a processor to take the paper. The city requested proposals from interested paper recyclers earlier this fall. But the city did not find a suitable company.
Single-stream recycling creates dirtier or more contaminated products than presorted recycling — where users separate and sort paper, glass, aluminum, steel and plastics.
The city started a pilot program to presort paper in bins throughout city hall in October. It is using that paper to test the clean paper market.
Meanwhile, paper should still be put in the trash can, city officials said. The city is continuing to explore other options for recycling paper and hopes to make an announcement after the first of the year.
Meanwhile, Lexington is trying to up its recycling education. Unwanted items can harm equipment and put employees at risk.
Only put plastic screw-top bottles and jugs; glass bottles and jars; steel and aluminum cans; and dry cardboard in blue recycling carts.
No plastic bags, ever.
