Dive Brief:

• One year after adding single-stream recycling collections to its sanitation routes, St. Paul, MN’s recycling rate hasn’t improved. 
• Officials announced that the recycling rate remains stagnant, and surmise the low rate is the result of lightweight packaging, reliance on small bins, and a scarce glass market.
• The city plans to work on increasing the rate by focusing on innovation in recycling “beyond traditional methods,” including public space recycling, organics collections, and construction and demolition debris.

Dive Insight:

Residents recycled 20,028.6 tons of recyclables in 2014, down 1% from the recycling rate of 20,484.2 tons in 2013. Glass recycling in 2014 was 4,244.5 tons, while it reached 5,392.7 tons in 2013. 

One material that increased was plastics; the higher volumes are thought to be from offering a wider range of plastic accepted curbside than in years before. The local recycling company started taking Nos. 4, 5, and 7, along with plastics Nos. 1 and 2 it had already taken.