Curbside Recycling On Radar For Broken Arrow

The city of Broken Arrow is one step closer to bringing curbside recycling to its neighborhoods.

Right now people may recycle by dropping things off at a recycling dumpster.

But soon residents may not need to go any further than their own front yard.

"We think it'll increase the volume of the recycling quite a bit," said Russell Peterson, Broken Arrow Recycling Committee chairman.

Peterson is working with the city to bring change to the curbside.

"This would be much easier on people," Pearson said.

"This is one of the biggest changes that will be coming to Broken Arrow," said Krista Flasch.

Flasch, who works for the city, said if the council approves it, two pilot projects will run for four months.

One would continue collecting trash in bags, but add a plastic cart just for recycling.

The other pilot would use two carts: one for trash, one for recycling.

Each pilot would be tested in 500 households, costing the city a total of $320,000.

"There's still a lot of details to hammer out," Flasch said.

One detail the city does know is the current voucher system, which provides trash bags to everyone, is costing more than $500,000 a year. 

That could soon go away. 

"Providing trash bags for residents is not very cost effective, nor is it sustainable," Flasch said.

Peterson said ideally, the curbside recycling program will roll out by the end of next year.

"We're getting to be quite a big city now — in the top 300 in the country — and we feel like we need to develop a better recycling plan," Peterson said.

The city council will vote on the pilot projects next month.