UPDATED: Lexington suspends recycling starting Monday. But plant could re-open soon
Lexington will suspend its recycling program starting Monday due to a mechanical problem at the Thompson Road recycling center.
The suspension of curbside residential and business recycling will hopefully be temporary, city officials said Friday.
A part that moves recyclables broke down Tuesday. Originally the city was told that Machinex Technologies, the company that can repair or replace the part, had closed during the coronavirus outbreak. It had not.
“Machinex is not closed,” said Nancy Albright, Lexington’s Commissioner of Environmental Quality and Public Works. “Instead they are working with us to help us fix our equipment and get the center up and operating as soon as possible.”
Albright said the city does not have an exact date for when recycling will resume but it will be much sooner than the three weeks of stoppage the city had originally forecasted on Wednesday.
“As soon as we have a new date we will make it public,” Albright said. “Citizens should be able to store recyclables at their homes until we’re ready to start picking them up again.”
Clean paper recycling drop off will continue and will not be suspended, Albright said.
The city had to suspend residential paper recycling in May after it could no longer find a buyer for paper goods. In January, the city placed yellow dumpsters for paper recycling drop off in multiple locations across the city.
People can still take paper only to those drop-off locations, city officials said.
This is not the first time Lexington’s Recycling Center has had to shut down due to mechanical problems at the plant. In June, the center was shut down for more than a week after another key piece of machinery broke.
This story was originally published April 8, 2020 at 5:17 PM.
