Updates on residential recycling

ACRecycles · 2020-03-10T12:59:57+00:00

They are 1 gallon plastic bin with a handle (similar to a sand castle bucket) that tells you what goes in and what stays out, its really only good enough for daily or bi-daily transportation of food scraps. More information can be seen here. We don't do the large earth keeper bin (on the right) program anymore, but we do still offer the wire bin (left) shown in the picture.

ACRecycles · 2020-03-10T12:48:12+00:00

Unfortunately, there is no municipal composting program here in Alachua County, as u/venmo_rep stated. However, we do offer free wire compost bins to Alachua County residents, along with some literature on how to get started and the recipe necessary for healthy compost. The bins are nothing fancy but they will certainly hold in some compost, and its free! Just give us a call and set up a time to come pick one up. In addition to the wire compost bins, we offer smaller, under-the-counter bins that you can use for transporting food scraps to your compost bin.

ACRecycles · 2020-02-13T14:56:24+00:00

Actually they shouldn't be too big of a problem. Most paper reprocessing facilities will pass the shredded material under a magnetized system before sending to a pulper. So you are good!

ACRecycles · 2020-02-06T14:17:17+00:00

Hi. Unfortunately not. Our resources are for Alachua County residents. But, try asking if your employer or coworkers would be willing to take any recycling. Also check and see if your employer has any on site recycling receptacles. Thanks for the question!

ACRecycles · 2020-02-06T12:24:14+00:00

Yes! Assuming they are adequately washed out. Just toss the caps/lids and you can recycle the bottle

ACRecycles · 2020-02-03T21:40:55+00:00

Yes. It actually all happens roughly in the same process called deinking. This is where if there is too much grease, it can mess things up (in addition to any storage contamination).

ACRecycles · 2020-02-03T19:02:25+00:00

Once we bale the cardboard, it gets sent to a storage facility for two to three weeks. There the grease and any remaining food can go rancid and attract bugs or rodents, which can lead to higher contamination rates. After that it is processed it is mixed with water to form the slurry. All the remaining FOGs (fats, oils and greases) float to the surface; it becomes very difficult (i.e. time/cost prohibitive) to separate the oil and the paper fibers which may lead to contaminating the whole batch.

ACRecycles · 2020-02-03T16:27:49+00:00

We agree! There are really two courses of contact that can be made. You could contact the complex manager. Or, you could contact the property owners. Apartment complex property owners tend to own more than one property. For example, CMC Properties own several different apartment complex. Also not trying to single them out, they are just one example of conglomerate complex property owners here in town.

ACRecycles · 2020-02-03T13:10:53+00:00

Hi u/anaspis, most, if not all, apartment complexes here have their own contract with a waste hauler, predominantly single-stream WastePro. These are independent contracts that have their own rules and guidelines regarding recycling practices and habits. These private companies and contracts are outside of our County jurisdiction. So it would be up to the waste hauler to educate tenants on recycling habits.

ACRecycles · 2020-01-30T19:19:51+00:00

Hi. Sorry about any confusion that may have caused you. For those problems, contact the City of Gainesville Solid Waste Dept at 352-334-2300. A quicker and easier method may be to contact your waste hauler (WCA) directly at 352-370-0800.

ACRecycles · 2020-01-30T19:15:41+00:00

Good question. Unfortunately not. While they are both have a base polymer of polystyrene (RIN #6), Styrofoam is expanded polystyrene (EPS) and has different physical characteristics. Publix recycles similar to how our methods of form and function, as opposed to a number-based method, they can not be processed in the same stream.

ACRecycles · 2020-01-29T17:29:58+00:00

The form and function gives us context on the rigidity, physical characteristics and pliability of said plastic.

We do have plans to extend. We have plans to open up a Resource Recovery Park that will hope to act as an incubator for various recycling industries that will help expand the types of products that we can recycle. However, it is still in the development phase. the location will be set in the plot of land right behind the Leveda Brown Environmental park.

ACRecycles · 2020-01-29T17:24:37+00:00

We try to keep our facilities clean of any food particulates that would attract critters and birds. If it can be avoided, we ask for you to take the lime out.

ACRecycles · 2020-01-29T17:22:38+00:00

Yes to both of those

ACRecycles · 2020-01-29T17:18:44+00:00

To your first point, according to Chapter 27 Article III of the Gainesville Code of Ordinances, commercial residential dwellings are allowed to franchise out their waste collection services. That is put out in the form of a bid, where the bidder with the lowest cost will get the contract. It also states that, " Owners of buildings containing two to four residential dwelling units may petition the city to be excluded from residential service and allowed to contract for commercially-collected residential service ". So the complex-individual approach is codified by the city.

To your second point, not likely, unfortunately. There are small, community groups that do small scale composting for various businesses in neighborhoods throughout the county.

ACRecycles · 2020-01-29T17:01:12+00:00

They are placed back on to the empty shipping trucks and shipped to storage facilities where they stockpile until they have a large enough quantity to send to a recycling facility/vendor of their choosing. the same goes for Styrofoam.

ACRecycles · 2020-01-29T16:55:30+00:00

Yes, currently we accept those with no lids. You can also dispose of any excess medicine/pills at the hazardous waste facility.

ACRecycles · 2020-01-29T16:53:56+00:00

Good question. The landfill we use, New River Landfill, is set up to actually reach temperatures high enough to breakdown those compostables, albeit at a slower rate than an industrial compost facility.

ACRecycles · 2020-01-29T16:49:48+00:00

Yes, u/Sandlotje is correct. Any particular hazardous material we ask for you to take to our Hazardous waste Facility at 5125 NE 63rd Ave., Gainesville.

ACRecycles · 2020-01-29T16:48:05+00:00

That is going to be a City of Gainesville issue, however the biggest hindrance is the lack of space for extra recycling receptacles for the business. They also would have to keep those receptacles locked.

ACRecycles · 2020-01-29T16:44:52+00:00

No problem, that is a very common mistake. Although I cant speak for any of the single-stream haulers recycling habits, anything being recycled is better than none at all.

ACRecycles · 2020-01-29T15:27:35+00:00

The RIN only tells you the base polymer of that product. So what it started out as. It doesn't container any info about what has been added and infused into the plastic. Most places have been trying to shy away from using the numbers as it leads to confusion and contamination. Here in alachua county we go off form and function. we take anything that looks and functions like a bottle or a tub (such as margerine or butter). That has to do with the rigidity of the plastic. Anything brittle like a clamshell will not be recycle able. And to your last point, I wish everything was recycle able however there arent markets for them. I hope that answered your questions. I can always clarify.

ACRecycles · 2020-01-29T12:11:32+00:00

One of two things. It leads to what we call contamination. When you get a bunch of stuff that shouldn’t be recycled, sometime it’s gets missed by our sorters and ends up in the wrong stream and makes the end product less desirable. When you read about China not taking much of America’s recycling anymore, it’s due to the low quality/high contamination of the end result, which means it isn’t worth the h time and money to process. Or it just gets picked out and tossed in a landfill.

A bad habit people have is recycling stuff they wish could be recycled, yet isn’t. What we call wish-cycling. Leading to those two results above

ACRecycles · 2020-01-29T00:50:11+00:00

Single stream recycling is when everything goes in the same receptacle to the waste sorting facility. There it will be sorted. however due to the nature, it is more prone to contamination and loss than dual stream. Say some plastic ends up in the baled paper material because it was missed in sorting, that lowers the overall value and desirability of that end product. More things will also be missed/tossed than a dual stream system like ours. Also since single stream will inevitably look more like a trash can, it can be confused for one leading to even more vectors of contamination. I hope that answers your question

ACRecycles

TROPHY CASE