Northeast Atlanta Recycling Cart Delivery Begins this Week

City of Atlanta residents who reside in single-family households in the Northeast quadrant of the city are scheduled to begin receiving their new 96-gallon recycling carts beginning later this week.

This includes several Midtown Patch neighborhoods including Midtown, Ansley Park, and Sherwood Forest. The delivery to Northeast quadrant residents is scheduled to run Nov. 9-27.

Southwest quadrant residents began receiving their carts on Oct. 15. Southeast quadrant residents will receive theirs Nov. 28 – Dec. 21, while Northwest quadrant residents, including those on the westside and in neighborhoods such as Home Park and Loring Heights, will receive theirs Dec. 26 – Jun. 17.

Officials say the carts are being delivered at a rate of 1,000 per day. A map with the distribution scheduled is attached with this article.

Residents are encouraged to keep their current 18-gallon bins; possibly to store recyclables in the house prior to taking them to the cart. If you don’t want it, please put it in your new cart and it will be recycled. Do not throw them away, as the City gets a refund on them.

In September, the City announced that it would be replacing the residents’ current recycling bins, allowing for more recyclables to be collected. The City’s recycling program is managed by the Department of Public Works and serves 95,000 households.

Currently, Atlanta residents generate about 96,000 tons of trash annually, which costs the city $7 million a year to dispose of in landfills. Residents recycle only 12,000 tons annually, which leaves significant room for improvement. In addition to the environmental benefits, diverting recyclables from landfills produces revenue for the City at a rate of $30 per ton.

The citywide distribution of carts is a key component of the City’s sustainability plan, Power to Change, which has a long-term goal of achieving 90 percent diversion of municipal waste by 2020, among other measures.

The push for expanded recycling will be led by a partnership among the City of Atlanta’s Mayor’s Office of Sustainability, Department of Public Works and the Curbside Value Partnership (CVP), which has been enlisted to help develop and measure an education campaign designed to educate and encourage residents about the best use of the new carts.
 
CVP is a national, invitation-only program designed to help communities grow their curbside programs through education. Since 2005, CVP has partnered with 30 communities and four states to develop, execute and measure highly effective education campaigns.

“One of my goals as mayor is to see Atlanta become a top tier city for sustainability,” Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed said in September in announcing the new carts. “Recycling is an important step towards that goal, as we make Atlanta a greener place to live, work and play. Rolling out these new large capacity recycling carts will make it easier for residents to recycle more.”

For more information about the residential recycling program, please visit www.cartlanta.org or call 404.330.6333.