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Increased Demand Sparks Changes in Fruita's Recycling Program

by KREX News Room
by Danielle Kreutter

Story Created: Feb 20, 2013 at 10:07 PM MDT

Story Updated: Feb 20, 2013 at 11:25 PM MDT

FRUITA, Colo. - What started off as a slow growing recycling effort in Fruita has grown so big that officials are now having to change the program.

The city of Fruita previously offered free recycling pick up only once every other week but since the number of residents involved in the program has grown into the thousands, they are changing the dates.

Kenneth Stevens has been working in recycling for more than 20 years.

"We love recycling, we're the number one recycler in North America," said Stevens, the Western Slope Recycling Manager for Waste Management.

Lately, folks in Fruita have been doing their part to keep the recycling trucks full and the sorting lines busy.

"People just started signing up by the dozens and we're still continuing to get probably more than a dozen every week and it's great," said Stevens.

City officials say at first they didn't have very many residents using the free recycle program, now they have more than 2,000 people enrolled.

"In the last several months we've had an increase in the number of accounts and we've also seen a lot of the accounts actually just increasing the amount of recycling they're doing," said Clint Kinney, Fruita City Manager.

Officials keep track of the Diversion Rate, which is the amount of waste that will not end up in the landfill because it was recycled.

Fruita's Diversion Rate has doubled in the last two months to total 10 percent.

"Our trucks are running at capacity and we're already running extra trucks so it's a good problem to have, we're really happy to see that and the new program allows us to grow even more," said Stevens.

Fruita is now increasing the number of days they'll pick up recycling, which has long time recyclers like Al Amirault hoping it will help others pick up the good habit.

"We're a throw away society, we throw everything away and there's got to be an end to it somewhere," said Amirault who has lived in Fruita for the last 15 years.

Starting March 4, there will be recycling pick up every other Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday depending on where you live.

Those dates are set to coincide with trash pick up days.

Visit: http://www.fruita.org/documents/admin/RecycleCalendar2011.pdf
for the full map and schedule.

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Cheryl said on Monday, Feb 25 at 9:54 PM

How is this an improvement? They were already picking up every other week, just on another day. I don't see how this change affects anything on my end except making it more work because now I have to do something to identify which container is which for those picking up on my regular trash day. (I have a big black rolling bin for plastics, glass, cans, etc. as those little green bins aren't big enough for two weeks worth of recycling stuff. I have another one for my regular trash).

Anony said on Thursday, Feb 21 at 11:47 AM

It is so awesome that Fruita has stepped up as a community to recycle~Go W.T.Fruita!! Now if only they had a recycle program for Clifton, p.s. not all Clifton residents are drug users and losers, there are many great communities in Clifton!!

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