City Council Votes to Expand Recycling Options

Ann Arbor is known for it’s earth-friendly ways, after all, half of our name comes from the abundance of green trees found all over the city. The city has put an emphasis on environmentally friendly practices, including adding bike lanes and bike parking spots downtown, local foods available throughout town, including the twice-weekly farmer’s markets, and through the city’s recycling programs.

Now residents will find it even easier to recycle their household items, as next June, a new single-stream recycling program goes into effect. This new program, which the city council voted unanimously to pass last night, will allow all recyclable materials to be put into one cart. No longer will Ann Arbor home owners and renters and businesses need to sort through their recyclables. The single-stream program will also expand the number and type of items accepted for recycling. This new program shows the city council’s continued commitment to environmentally conscious living.

Residents have a number of recycling resources available at their disposal (no pun intended), including curb-side recycling services, Recycle Ann Arbor, The ReUse Center, and the Ecology Center. Other environmentally-conscious resources in town include the excellent transportation system- hybrid AATA buses criss-cross the downtown and outlying areas providing transportation, Amtrak trains deliver passengers to destinations around the country, and the local Zip Car program makes it easy to rent a car for a few hours. Ann Arbor is an environmentally conscious city making strides in reducing our impact on the earth.

Image courtesy Flickr: pomme_rewny