The local authorities of Minneapolis state have been placing blue bins around the streets. The City Department of Public Works is making tremendous efforts to try and double their recycling rates, so they are placing these additional blue bins around the city. The department has currently distributed around 30,000 blue bins or carts, each of which has the capacity to hold 95 gallons of waste. Through these increased carts, the department aims at achieving a one-sort recycling system.

The One-Sort Recycling System – Recycling Double the Amount in Minneapolis

The coordinator of this project, Michelle Chavez, states that this system will make it easier for the state to recycle waste. He adds that this is just the first phase of the initiative, and by 2013 spring the department is planning on distributing 110,000 more carts around various areas of the city. Through this initiative, he hopes that people will dispose off more recyclable material than they have in the past, as they have to dispose all the waste in one single bin, without segregating it.

Residents' Opinions on the System and Usage of Eco-Friendly Promotional Items

A biomedical engineering student, Chelsey Shoup feels that this system will prove to be more beneficial than the previous one. In her view, the blue bins will constantly remind the residents about the need to recycle and promote eco-friendly items like eco friendly shopping bags on the whole and will also propagate the usage of eco friendly promotional items. According to Devan Grimsrud, a journalism student at the University of Minnesota, this system is extremely efficient as it has fixed collection days. He also adds that sometimes students find it hard to distinguish between recyclable and non-recyclable wastes, and this system will help them out as all the waste needs to be disposed in one common bin.

The Minneapolis Disposal System

The City Department of Public Works decided to introduce this policy by comparing Minneapolis to other cities in the country through a research. During the research, officials found that many other cities have benefited from a one-sort recycling system. For instance, the city of Ann Arbor saw a 15 percent increase in its recyclables after switching to this system. At present, Minneapolis has a recycling rate of 18.1 percent. So after the complete switch to a one-sort system, the department is hoping that it will increase its recyclables to a substantial 32 percent in the near future.

Source:http://www.mndaily.com/2012/11/26/single-sort-system-aims-double-recycling