Paper recycling from home carts will resume in Lexington in March, city leaders announced and the city has a machinery upgrade to thank.聽鈥淚t has been a long journey, complicated by the pandemic, to restore this service. Now, we鈥檙e moving forward,鈥� Mayor Linda Gorton said. Thanks to an upcoming聽$4.2 million refresh of the Recycling Center鈥檚 machinery, the聽center will once again be able to recycle 鈥渃lean鈥� paper,聽such as office and printing papers, magazines and newspapers, collected curbside from the聽blue carts聽provided through the City鈥檚 Waste Management service.
The new equipment and upgrades to existing devices, which the Mayor included in the current budget, will allow the center to:
- Sort paper collected curbside more effectively, and produce better quality paper;
- Increase the capacity of the center to produce higher quality recyclables to sell.
鈥淏oth of those outcomes allow us to restore curbside paper collection and improve the overall performance of the facility,鈥� said Tracey Thurman, Director of Waste Management. 鈥淭he changes will also improve how we sort glass, and this will reduce the damage glass breakage does to our equipment.鈥�