Jacksonville Officials Applaud Community Effort Leading to Significant Recycling Contamination Rate Reduction

Officials in Jacksonville, Fla. Praised residents at a recent City Hall conference, celebrating the effort shown by the community to limit contamination in the city’s recycling.

Last year, an audit was conducted on the city’s recycling and after those results were shared, officials said residents began recycling more and recycled properly. Over the last 12 months, leaders say contamination levels in recycling streams are down 23 percent.

“Plastic bottles, detergent bottles, milk bottles, your hard plastics, things you can’t stretch, put your finger through, all of those are recyclable in our program and get turned into new products,” Public Works official Eric Fuller said.

Fuller mentioned that the city’s recycling audit consisted of observing thousands of recycling carts during a seven-month period. Around 240,000 households were surveyed, which, in turn, led to 285,000 customers getting recycling education.

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