Recycling woes linger for some St. Paul residents

Cardboard and other materials are starting to litter St. Paul's Macalester-Groveland neighborhood.

That's according to Peter Hendricks, an attorney who lives in the area. He thinks the city's transition from curbside recycling to placing carts in alleys has so far been a bust.

While the reboot of residential recycling in St. Paul has gotten off to a rocky start, Eureka Recycling and city officials both say they think the effort has turned a corner.

Complaints are down by more than half since the city switched to new equipment, and the remaining problems are coming into clearer view.

The transition, which began about a month ago, initially brought thousands of complaints to the city and Eureka — 2,700 in the first week.

Eureka said there were fewer than 900 complaints last week.

Some people didn't get carts. Some have kept putting out their old bins. Icy alleys have thwarted trucks moving from house to house.

Sometimes, city officials say, residents leave their carts inside fenced yards, lean them up against garages or face them the wrong way. That prevents trucks' hydraulic arms from picking up the carts, which makes the program economically viable.

"We were designed to do automatic collection down the alley, and our drivers were having to get out to adjust carts for 80-85 percent of the carts," said Lynn Hoffman, a co-president of Eureka.

She said the other problems are mostly technological. For example, maps of the city's alleys proved more incomplete than anyone anticipated, making efficient pickup difficult.

Anne Hunt, St. Paul's environmental policy director, said the city is still working on problems.

It just sent out a mass mailer to clarify how the carts need to be readied for pickup. Staff have also stepped up outreach for non-English speakers and had Eureka out with some smaller trucks to navigate some of the city's trickiest passages.

"We have had some chronic misses. We have had some dead-end alleys. We have had some impassable alleys because of icy conditions," Hunt said, adding that they are working with Eureka to address those situations specifically.

Despite the problems, the amount of recycling collected in St. Paul is up about 20 percent with the new system compared to last year.

And with millions of dollars invested in more than 80,000 new recycling carts, officials say it isn't practical to go back.

The city has a five-year contract with Eureka, and a 90-day grace period to work out the kinks before any potential penalties might kick in.