海角破解版

Cleveland is asking residents to continue separating trash and recyclables, even though both are bound for the landfill.

Council members pressed city officials with questions about Cleveland鈥檚 stalled recycling program at a two-hour virtual council hearing Tuesday, almost two weeks after revelations that the city was no longer sending recyclables to be processed.

Global disruptions in the recycling market鈥攑lus a high local contamination rate鈥攎ade the program too costly to continue, said officials in Mayor Frank Jackson鈥檚 administration.

The city used to receive a rebate as high as $21 per ton for its recyclables, Chief Operating Officer Darnell Brown said. But the price plummeted after China stopped accepting imports of most materials. Cleveland recently turned down a contract that would have cost the city $192 per ton, he said.

But Clevelanders should keep filling their blue recycling bins while the city works out a solution, Brown said.

鈥淭he amount of waste per household is not going to change, so saying, 鈥楶ut everything in the black container鈥� won鈥檛 work,鈥� he said.  

The city hired consultant GT Environmental to evaluate Cleveland鈥檚 waste management options. That work could take a year to finish up, Brown said. In the meantime, the city has received some interest in its paper and cardboard, he said.

鈥淎t some point we are going to go back into some kind of recycling process,鈥� he said.

Another issue facing the city鈥檚 recycling program is that as much as 68 percent of Cleveland鈥檚 recycling is contaminated with non-recyclables, Brown said. Residents aren鈥檛 getting fined for mixing in the wrong materials right now, Brown said, but the city is still collecting fees to support the overall waste collection program.

While city officials said they鈥檝e run recycling education programs over the years, Councilman Charles Slife pressed for more.

鈥淚 have residents in my ward who host recycling seminars,鈥� Slife said, 鈥渁nd I鈥檝e heard from a number of avenues a concern that our educational component has not been aggressive enough.鈥�

A few council members said they were disappointed to have learned about the recycling program鈥檚 suspension . Although council knew the recycling market was in trouble and the city鈥檚 contract was nearing expiration, the city should communicated better, Council President Kevin Kelley said.

鈥淔rom a council person鈥檚 perspective, there鈥檚 nothing worse than learning something on the news, even if it was more of something maybe we had some knowledge of,鈥� he said.