LEXINGTON, Ky. (LEX 18) — Workers wearing orange vests will disperse into Lexington neighborhoods this week. It’s part of a recycling audit led by Lexington’s Division of Waste Management.
“You will find many of our workers actually peeking inside of the bin,” said director Antonio Baldon. “This audit is to have that grassroots effort of approaching the public openly of, ‘hey, this is the material we do not want in there, and this is the material we would like for you to place in there.’”
Baldon and his team are giving out a grade of sorts to let people know how well they are recycling. The hope is that this will cut down on waste contamination and speed up sorting efforts.
“It will help us to be able to get unwanted material out of there for the safety of our personnel as well as for equipment,” said Baldon. “There is a monetary tag when so much stuff has to go to the landfill.”
During these checks, crews are looking for things like plastic bags, food, Styrofoam, and plenty of other items. It's also important to know that anything placed inside of a bag is considered trash.
Baldon hopes that consistent audits over the next couple of weeks will help increase recycling efforts around the city.
“We also had trends to what we did see,” Baldon said. "This is a great neighborhood to kind of go into to see if we can either change the behavior, improve the behavior, increase participation.”
The waste management team hopes to create lasting habits around Lexington, starting with four neighborhoods.
“There's no need to try to go into different areas until we clean up the first area,” Baldon said.
