New recycling bins in place

Published 10:46 pm Thursday, April 29, 2010

More options for recycling have come to Suffolk this week.

Chesapeake-based TFC Recycling started putting its large recycling bins at various drop-off locations around the city on Thursday. The bins will replace those provided by the Southeastern Public Service Authority, which began pulling its containers off the streets this week.

The new containers will be placed at the various recycling points around the city, such as parking lots on White Marsh Road, Market Street, and other locations. Residents now will be able to dump all their materials in the same bin, rather than separating different types of material into different bins, TFC vice president for business development Ed Farmer said.

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The company won a contract from the city to maintain the bins, collect the material on a regular basis and process it at its facility.

The new bins can accept most types of paper, including newspapers, magazines, catalogs, envelopes, office paper, wrapping paper, paper bags, phone books, writing paper and junk mail; plastic jugs such as milk jugs; steel and tin cans; aluminum cans; glass bottles; cardboard; boxes such as the type used to package cereal; and shrink wrap. They cannot accept aerosol cans, diapers, motor oil, paint cans, plastic bags, wood products or yard waste.

Each bin is painted green with the TFC logo and features a sliding door on the side, a slot on the front, and a list to remind residents what can and cannot be placed in the bins.

TFC also is in the process of signing up residents to pay $12 a month for curbside recycling. Farmer said the large bins would be convenient for people who cannot pay the subscription cost or cannot sign up for other reasons, such as that they live in an apartment building.

“It should be more convenient, and more items can go in it,” Farmer said.

The company will complete delivering its bins to the few sites that do not yet have them during the next few days, he said.