The first week of an expanded curbside recycling program in Petersburg has gone well. That’s according to the borough’s public works director Karl Hagerman who expects to see a big drop in the amount of garbage the community ships to a landfill in Washington state because of the program. The recycled material is also shipped south, but it costs the borough about one third of the cost of shipping garbage.

Over 700 customers are participating in the unsorted collection of glass, plastics, cans, paper, cardboard and other materials. Hagerman says residents are still signing up and thinks people have done a good job of getting the correct materials into recycling bags. Joe Viechnicki spoke with Hagerman about the first week of co-mingled recycling.

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The borough has large and small bags available at the public works office and finance office. Hagerman says he’s heard several reports of birds pecking at recycling bags. He suggests putting out recycling bags in the morning, not the evening before to cut down on access for birds, or buying a separate garbage can to hold the recycling bags. Another item to note, the increased rate for people who are not recycling takes effect this month.