Mayor Tom Wieseler held a conversation with constituents Saturday, May 21, at Mount Vernon City Hall.
The visit with the mayor gave members of the public a chance to see the different size of containers to be used with the switch over from the tags system to Republic Waste Management.
One of the key points the mayor and Matthew Pivit of Republic Services were getting through – “recycle clean.”
Any dirty containers in recycling will contaminate that load, and potentially send recycling to the waste instead of to recycling markets.
“If you’re in doubt if something is not clean enough, throw it in the trash,” Wieseler said.
Wieseler noted that there are a few items that have to be addressed by the city council yet in the transition, primarily involving snowbirds and the glass recycling for the community.
Pivit noted his best advice for people with the new containers – keep the wheels of the container away from the curb of the roads. The containers are predisposed to fall over towards the side with the wheels, and by keeping wheels away from the curb, that will keep the containers from emptying onto the roadway.
Containers should also have roughly two feet between each other at the curb to help those on the route be able to pick them up much more smoothly.
Pivit recommends all garbage please be placed in a bag of some sort.
The city will purchase back garbage tags as the community switches from tags to containers in July, and past recycling containers can be recycled this July if people no longer want to use them.
New containers will be rolled out to members of the community this June ahead of Republic’s routes beginning.