If you subscribe to the Manteca Bulletin and are disapointed the City of Manteca is no longer collecting newspapers for recycling, you can drop them by the Bulletin’s Button Avenue production facility and they will be recycled.
Manteca’s new recycling rules have banished newspapers along with magazines, all other paper, paper board boxes such as what cereal and shoes come in, and glass from the blue carts allowing only clean corrugated cardboard, California Redemption Value (CRV) containers, tin cans and No. 1 and No. 2 plastics to be placed in the recycling container.
That has frustrated a lot of people who for decades have faithfully recycled newspapers.
The Bulletin is printed on recycled newspaper and we also work with a company that recycles newspaper.
Firms won’t take newspapers that the city collects any longer because it is mixed with other paper products that render it worthless.
You can call the Bulletin during normal business hours at 209.249.3500 for details on where to take your newspapers.
Keep in mind you will need to drop them off and only newspaper will be accepted. We will accept not just the Bulletin but any other newspaper you subscribe to for recycling.
About those CRV
plastic bottle caps
Reader Paulette Smith was among those a bit taken aback when the Bulletin last Friday shared an answer that a city employee gave to a question posed by a Manteca Rotarian during a presentation about the new recycling rules.
The answer was that the caps on plastic CRV bottles could not be recycled and that tin cans needed to have the labels removed and then cleaned in order to be recycled.
Solid Waste Division Manager Rexie LeStrange, who also has also been making presentations about the new recycling rules double checked with vendors that take the recyclables Manteca collects.
While it is true that the plastic caps are not recyclable and that some CRV redemption centers will not take CRV plastic bottles with the caps still on, the city’s vendor said it will not be an issue for them as they can deal with that level of contamination.
LeStrange also said while labels on tin cans are not recyclable the vendor has a process that cleans the cans off the labels as well as food reside.
The bottom line: You can place CRV plastic bottles along with their caps intact as well as tin cans with labels still on them that may also still have food residue in the blue carts for recycling.
Solid waste office
is popular place
The new recycling rule change and an initial 90-day waiver of the $51.75 switch out fee to obtain a larger brown cart if is needed by household customers to handle items the city will no longer collect in blue carts for recycling, has made the Solid Waste Division office on Wetmore Street a popular place.
Typically they handle 27 requests a day for cart change service either for new homes, people who have just moved into existing homes and such. The volume of request for changing carts has gone up five-fold.
While there may be no charge for switching to a larger container, the move will result in a higher charge for garbage collection. The monthly charge for a 32-gallon brown cart is $28.48, a 64-gallon cart is $30.28, and a 96-gallon cart $31.97. To go from a small to medium cart would be an additional $1.80 a month and from the medium to large is $1.69 a month. If someone went from a small to large cart the monthly increase would be $3.49 a month.
You can sign up at the finance department at the Civic Center or solid waste office on Wetmore Street for larger brown carts.
Change in collection
days for the holidays
While we are still on topic No. 1 these days in Manteca — garbage collection — you should take note for the next two weeks (the week of Dec. 24 and the week of Dec. 31) there will be a change in collection days due to the holidays.
Monday collection will not change. If your normal collection is Tuesday it will be moved to Wednesday. If it is on Wednesday it will be moved to Thursday. If it is on Thursday it will be moved to Friday. And if it is on Friday it will be moved to Saturday.
The shift in collection days allows solid waste workers to have Christmas Day and New Year’s Day off.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabuleltin.com
