Blue toters to be dropped off across Muncie Monday as MSD launches new recycle program

David Penticuff, Muncie Star Press
·3 min read

MUNCIE, Ind. − The city's new recycling program kicks into action Monday as more than 5,000 blue toters arrive at homes across the city, said Jason Donati, storm water and recycling educator for the Muncie Sanitary District.

The new 96-gallon toters will replace blue bags that residents had been using to set out their recyclables. The new toters should make it easier to recycle cardboard boxes that often don't fit in the blue bags. Donati said when the program was announced earlier year, it should make it easier to keep the recyclables separated from trash, which goes in green toters.

New blue 96-gallon toters stacked outside the Muncie Sanitary will start being delivered to Muncie homes on Monday. The toters replace recycle bags and are being used in a new recycle program by MSD.
New blue 96-gallon toters stacked outside the Muncie Sanitary will start being delivered to Muncie homes on Monday. The toters replace recycle bags and are being used in a new recycle program by MSD.

There is no extra charge to participate in the new program.

MSD is driving to reach a 50% recycle rate for the city, Donati said. State officials have set a 50% goal for all of Indiana. Under its blue bag program, Muncie has had a 32% to 36% recycling rate.

This week Donati said MSD has thousands of blue toters being kept at the the agency's offices on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, and they will be distributed beginning Monday, July 31, to the 5,400 households signed up for the new program so far.

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He said the response has been better than expected as MSD has sought to get the word out in the spring. MSD is continuing to market the program and anticipates 7,000 participants to sign up in coming weeks.

Those among the first 7,000 households to sign up will receive a free 10-gallon kitchen container and free paper shredding at East Central Recycling. Those who wish to participate can join up online at munciesanitary.org. Participants must take a pledge when signing up. The pledge reads: " I will recycle and follow the City's recycling program guidelines to reduce contamination and help make recycling more efficient. I will place these empty and clean items loose in my blue recycling toter: Aluminum, tin, and steel cans; Glass bottles and jars; Mixed paper, magazines, paperboard, cardboard; Plastic bottles, jugs, and jars.

MSD has received their additional trucks that were acquired for the enhanced recycling program, Donati said.

Earlier this year MSD reported it would buy two "LaBrie Right-Hand Automizer trucks." The trucks lift and empty the toters into the truck with an automated arm on the vehicle's right side.

In November the District won a $468,798.00 grant from the Recycling Market Development Board at the state for its transition from bags to toters for recycling. The grant provided money to purchase the 7,000 blue toters.

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MSD will continue to accept the recycle bags for a period of time until the transition is complete, Donati said. The recycle trucks, which will follow trash trucks on a given area's trash day, will work much like the grapple trucks that handle large items set out for pickup on trash day. Collection of recyclables placed in the new toters is expected to start on August 7.

David Penticuff is a reporter with The Star Press. He can be reached at dpenticuff@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Muncie Star Press: New MSD recycling program launches Monday with delivery of blue toters