Green Living and Energy Education Florida Keys - GLEE

Key West's recycling rate is less than 10 percent, even as more items are being added to the list of recyclables, and efforts to make recycling convenient are continuing.

Residents have complained that their Waste Management-issued, blue or green recycling bins are too small to contain all of a household's recycling, so the city worked with the trash company, and with the nonprofit Green Living and Energy Education, to print green and white "Recycling" stickers that will transform any lightweight container into a recycle bin.

The stickers are free and available at Strunk Ace Hardware, 1101 Eaton St., and at the city's Revenue Department in Habana Plaza on Flagler Avenue.

"Just put the recycling sticker on top where the haulers can see it. Any type of container will do as long as it is marked with the label in a visible spot," GLEE's program director, Bridget McDonald, said in a news release.

She added that recycling bins may not exceed 50 pounds when full.

The addition of new items to the city's recyclable list also has been filling up the bins. For example, all plastics marked with recycle numbers one through seven are recyclable in Key West, and plastic caps may be left on bottles.

GLEE coordinators note that Key West enjoys single-stream recycling, meaning there is no need to separate glass, aluminum, plastic and paper. It all goes in the same bin for sorting at a recycling facility.

One plastic -- grocery bags -- are not acceptable in recycling bins, but many supermarkets maintain bins specifically for the lightweight bags.

Recycling has been mandatory in Key West since 2009, but officials have not instituted penalties for those who do not recycle.

Kessler Consulting is conducting a year-long study that will result in a solid waste master plan, which will include ways to increase recycling and lower the city's costs of garbage removal. It is cheaper for the city to recycle than to haul out garbage, as all trash must be trucked out of the Keys and the city pays according to the weight of that garbage.

Preliminary reports from Kessler indicate that fully 30 percent of the garbage being discarded in Key West is recyclable.

For more information on local recycling laws, visit http://www.keysglee.com or http://www.keywestcity.com.