urbanSTL

^Didn't she just say she wasn't going to cancel it after all last week? I think I have whiplash from trying to follow this.

The date on that article is May 16…

I mean frankly, awesome...because recycling is a literal lie as a concept anyway. Totally bogus cash grab from the plastics and big oil industries. Recycling isn't the solution. Abstaining from producing plastic materials is....once the product is produced, it's already too late. That's just a fact. https://www.earthday.org/plastic-recycling-is-a-lie/

walker wrote: ↑

Jul 18, 2025

The date on  that article is May 16…

Sorry I hadn't heard about this so I meant to ask in the post if we'd heard any udpates

Stl PR - Alley recycling in St. Louis is officially going away. Here’s what will replace it

https://www.stlpr.org/government-politi ... ing-refuse

StlToday - St. Louis ends alley recycling. Mayor says it's not working.

https://www.stltoday.com/news/local/gov ... b8e97.html

SRQ2STL wrote: ↑

Jul 18, 2025

I mean frankly, awesome...because recycling is a literal lie as a concept anyway. Totally bogus cash grab from the plastics and big oil industries. Recycling isn't the solution. Abstaining from producing plastic materials is....once the product is produced, it's already too late. That's just a fact. https://www.earthday.org/plastic-recycling-is-a-lie/

The EarthDay.org article is critical of only plastic recycling because plastic numbers 1 and 2 have a 30% recycling rate, and plastic numbers 3 to 7 are more difficult, with 6 and 7 being impossible.

The article states that recycling is a success story for other materials, including aluminum, paper, and glass.

It is disappointing that alley recycling ended in the City of St. Louis due to recycling bins being contaminated with trash.

Recycling bins are blue, and trash bins are both blue and brown.  Recycling bins often got contaminated with trash because they were mistaken for trash bins.  Many recycling bins have insufficient or small labeling to indicate that they are recycling bins.  One solution would have been to require trash bins to be a color other than blue.  Each recycling bin should have a giant label to indicate that it is a recycling bin, along with instructions on what is recyclable.

Downtown St. Louis (zip code 63103) has one recycling drop-off center on Delmar Blvd. between 14th St. and 15th St. (behind City Museum), which is pictured.  The 1st and 4th bins are not labeled, which can lead to confusion and contamination of the recyclables.

The City of St. Louis website shows the locations of recycling drop-off centers.  The City of St. Louis plans to add more locations.

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/d ... ropoff.cfm

The Saint Louis City Recycles website provides a lot of helpful information on recycling.

https://stlcityrecycles.com/

^I doubt that the alley recycling was commonly contaminated because people were confused about the bin colors. Most offenders just don't care, so if the trash dumpster is already full, they throw their garbage in the recycling. Our recycling bin was constantly full of hefty bags full of recycling, thus contaminating all of it. The bins tell you what to do, you just have to take a minute to read them or google it. Now I get to burn fossil fuel driving my recycling to Benton Park once a week... 

All the blue dumpsters in your photo above are the same: single-stream recycling bins.

Commercial trash dumpsters are blue. The young and uninformed would easily confuse a recycle bin for trash.

There is also no standard for state to state. My in laws curb side trash is blue while the recycling is green.

Both of the drop off places near me are totally overfilled already. Like spilling out into the street overfilled.

Auggie wrote: ↑

Aug 20, 2025

Both of the drop off places near me are totally overfilled already. Like spilling out into the street overfilled.

For a problem with either a recycling dumpster or trash dumpster, a Citizens’ Service Bureau report can be submitted on the City of St. Louis website at this link.  Upload a photo to show the severity of the problem.  Mention the date of the photo and when the dumpster will be emptied.

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/d ... stanceID=0

Adalrich wrote: ↑

Aug 22, 2025

Auggie wrote: ↑

Aug 20, 2025

Both of the drop off places near me are totally overfilled already. Like spilling out into the street overfilled.

For a problem with either a recycling dumpster or trash dumpster, a Citizens’ Service Bureau report can be submitted on the City of St. Louis website at this link.  Upload a photo to show the severity of the problem.  Mention the date of the photo and when the dumpster will be emptied.

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/d ... stanceID=0

I don't think it was missed. I just think the sudden influx of recycling going into these dumpsters is way too much for a once or even twice weekly pickup. I noticed today that it had been picked up. I'll drive by on Saturday again, so I'll look and take note.

Residents are continuing to place recyclables in the blue dumpsters that are still labeled “Recyclables Only,” while being unaware that garbage trucks are combining recyclables with trash.  The city needs to act fast to either remove these dumpsters or relabel them as “Trash Only.”  The city needs to better inform residents that alley recycling ended and inform them of the nearest recycling drop-off locations.

There are 26 recycling drop-off locations in the City of St. Louis.  15 firehouses are recycling drop-off locations.

https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/d ... ropoff.cfm

Unfortunately, Firehouse No. 2 (314 S. Tucker Blvd. in Downtown St. Louis) is not listed as a recycling drop-off location.  I took this photo behind Firehouse No. 2 on August 26, 2025.  The two blue dumpsters are labeled as “Recyclables Only,” and both were full of recyclables, but the garbage truck combined recyclables with trash.  Are government buildings still recycling? If so, the operator of the garbage truck may be mistakenly combining recyclables with trash.

Residents in southern Downtown St. Louis need a close recycling drop-off location.

Instead of ending alley recycling, contamination of recycling dumpsters could be drastically reduced with these solutions:

1.  Require all trash dumpsters to be brown.  Blue trash dumpsters were leading to confusion.

2.  Each recycling dumpster should have a giant “Recyclables Only” label, instructions on what is recyclable, and a warning that recyclables cannot be bagged.

3.  Some recycling dumpsters were filled with trash when the trash dumpsters were full.  These locations should be given an additional trash dumpster or an additional trash collection day.

4.  If contamination of a recycling dumpster persists at a location, then the recycling dumpster should be removed only at that location.

5.  Fine those who contaminate recycling dumpsters.

6.  Charge a fee to locations with contaminated recycling dumpsters.

7.  Use locks and chains on recycling dumpsters.

This post isn't about recycling because most people in the city stopped doing that 5-10 years ago. There's something strange happening with garbage pick up. The regular dumpsters are overflowing in the alley - that's ok, it happens sometimes. However, I've seen a big red beautiful trash truck pass by through the alley three times (at least) and going both ways down alley. Usually goes one way down alley to pick up trash. Each time all the trash pick up was skipped. Very strange. Dumpster are definitely pretty bad maybe they didn't want to ***** with it.

9th and 10th wards need closer options.

I just assume that since China stopped taking our recycling that it simply ends up in landfills everywhere.

Looks like they've put one on Des Peres in Skiny-D

https://www.firstalert4.com/2025/09/15/ ... ng-system/

Breaking: Poorly thought out recycling plan is poorly thought out.