Plan will further expand City’s recycling program that has doubled in participation since April 2012

KEY TAKEAWAYS:

• Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola unveiled plan to expand City’s recycling program to include multi-family housing
• “Offering residents of multi-family housing units the same recycling opportunity as other residents is important for the future,” said Mayor Stodola
• The ordinance requires all multi-family housing residences with 100 units or more to provide and encourage recycling effect on July 1, 2014
• This plan will expand the recycling program without adding additional fees
• Little Rock’s new single stream recycling program has seen a doubling in participation rates and tons collected since it began April 2012

LITTLE ROCK – Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola unveiled a plan to expand the City’s popular single-stream recycling program to include multi-family housing Tuesday. The proposal, which is supported by the Little Rock Realtors Association, will bring recycling to the door step of thousands more Little Rock residents.

“Offering residents of multi-family housing units the same recycling opportunity as other residents is important for the future,” said Mayor Stodola. “This plan will significantly expand the City’s recycling program without adding a dime in additional fees to our residential customers.”

The ordinance requires that owners or managers of all multi-family housing with 100 units or more to provide recycling for residents. The program goes into effect on July 1, 2014 to allow for implementation.

Approximately 83 percent of all multi-family housing—a total of 19,485 units—is located in complexes with 100 or more units.

A letter from the Little Rock REALTORS Association’s (LRRA) Legislative Affairs Committee Chair, Stuart S. Mackey, and Legislative Affairs Committee Consultant, Lucas Hargraves, offered support for the plan, saying the, “LRRA shares your goal of promoting additional recycling in Little Rock and appreciates your continued leadership on this issue.”

The letter of support also noted the LRRA policy stating, “LRRA supports increased awareness programs for citywide recycling and curbside pick-up. We can have growth and solve litter, dumping, and recycling problems through the use of practical programs….”

“This expansion of our recycling program will further the City’s goals of reducing solid waste collection and increasing the lifespan of our landfill,” Mayor Stodola said. “Recycling also offers significant benefits for our environment and can bring increased economic opportunity to our community.”

The ordinance encourages all multi-family housing owners, regardless of the number of units, to provide recycling opportunities on site. With successful implementation, the City Board could consider expanding the program to include complexes with fewer units.

A recent update provided by Waste Management, which operates Little Rock’s new single-stream recycling program, estimated participation rates have more than doubled to 80 percent since it began in April 2012. Similarly, the annual amount of recycling collected has doubled to 10,200 tons, compared to approximately 5,500 tons annually at the end of the old program.

“Little Rock residents have dramatically increased their participation in the City’s new single-stream recycling program, contributing to substantial environmental protections,” Mayor Stodola.

Diverting 10,200 tons of solid waste from the landfill towards recycling is equivalent to:

• Saving 47.9 million kilowatt hours of electricity
• Growing 703,528 trees for 10 years
• Saving 3,076,019 gallons of gasoline
• Removing the annual emissions of 5,717 cars from the atmosphere

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