(1/21/21) Recycling Reinstated - Press Release
Ogden City is excited to announce that curbside recycling services are being reinstated, effective immediately. Residents are highly encouraged to resume best practices while sorting recyclables into the blue can and disposing of general household refuse into the green can.
On January 20th, the Ogden City Planning Commission granted an extension to Recycled Earth to come into compliance with its Conditional Use Permit (CUP). The extension requires Recycled Earth to maintain operations that are in accordance with the rules and regulations contained within the permit. This approval will allow Recycled Earth to once again receive and process recyclable material from Ogden City, which is in the best interest of the city and its residents.
Ogden City suspended deliveries to its recycling provider on March 3rd, 2020. The reason for the suspension was that city recycling trucks were being directed to dump their loads outdoors, which was a violation of the CUP. Among various other guidelines, the operating permit requires all dumping, sorting, and bailing to occur inside a building. Outdoor dumping had previously led to significant problems for neighboring properties, including odors, blowing debris, and attraction of seagulls.
“Recycling has always been a top priority for our administration, and we’re excited to bring that service back to our City,” said Ogden Mayor Mike Caldwell. “We have heard input from many of our residents and whole-heartedly agree that offering this curbside recycling service is the responsible choice for our environment, and we hope to continue offering this service to residents for many years to come. We appreciate the communities’ patience as we worked through some difficult market-place and legal issues.”
Residents are encouraged to sort their recyclable materials and may only place the following items in their blue cans:
- Plastics #1 & #2 (water & soda bottles, milk jugs, laundry detergent, etc. Look for the 1 or 2 symbol)
- Household (Kitchen) Steel and aluminum cans
- Clean unwaxed cardboard
- Clean Paper
The following items are not acceptable:
- No plastic bags, wrap or film
- No food waste, no soiled products
- No yard waste or grass
- No clothes or shoes
- No toys or oversized plastic items
- No glass (Use provided recycling bins at other locations)
- No shredded paper
- No needles or medical waste
- No Styrofoam
- No waxy or gloss paper items
- No batteries
- No containers with liquid
- No diapers
- No plastic lined mail pouches
General questions about recycling and what is allowed in the cans should be directed to Ogden City Public Services: 801-629-8271 or visit: http://www.recycledearth.com/residential-recycling/
Media Contact
Contact: Jay Lowder
Public Services Director
801-629-8215
(12/9/20) The Ogden Planning Commission is tenatively scheduled to discuss issues surrounding violations of Recycled Earth's conditional use permit on January 6th during their scheduled meeting. Violations of the permit caused recycling to halt on March 3rd, 2020. Ogden City also continues to investigate other options and have not currently arrived at a viable and sustainable alternative.
(08/10/20) Ogden City is investigating all available options to bring curbside recycling back online for residents. Please continue to practice appropriate sorting as recycling may continue at any time and we want to make sure that our recyclables can be accepted as "clean" material. Ogden City Administration places a high priority on bringing the program back as quickly as possible and will notify the public once a solution is in place. Thank you for your understanding and patience as we work towards a viable resolution to this important issue.
Original Release (07/13/20):
Ogden City suspended deliveries to its recycling provider on March 3rd 2020. The reason for the suspension was that city recycling trucks were being directed to dump their loads outdoors. Outdoor unloading is a violation of the provider’s operating permit from Ogden City. The operating permit requires all dumping, sorting and bailing to take place inside of a building. Outdoor dumping can lead to significant problems for neighboring properties, including odors, blowing debris and the attraction of seagulls. The city was not willing to allow these types of permit violations to persist which resulted in the decision to suspend deliveries. Because there is no other locally available option for processing the volume of recyclable material produced by city residents, the city was forced to start making deliveries of recyclables to the Weber County Transfer Station. Although the recyclable materials have been sent to the landfill since March, Ogden City expects to resume making recycling deliveries once challenges with our local recycling provider are resolved, or once a viable alternative solution is in place.
Just as our residents do, Ogden City places a high priority on responsibly disposing of refuse and offering a sustainable recycling program. Here are some facts about the current state of Ogden’s recycling program:
1) Unlike some cities, Ogden City does not charge residents an additional fee to have a blue curbside recycling bin. The flat fee charged to residents provides a regular green refuse bin, as well as a blue recycle bin. The city’s recycling activities have always operated as a part of its overall refuse operations. Ogden can make this work for a single fee where other cities cannot because we own and operate our own fleet of collection vehicles. Another example of how this benefits the city is that we were able to convert all of our collection vehicles to natural gas in 2008.
2) The effectiveness of recycling activities are not entirely within any single person or entity’s control. Even when the city delivers recyclable materials to a recycling provider, the provider must find an outlet to sell those products to. The prices that the end users are willing to pay can vary substantially over time. In the past, there have been times when the recyclables were more valuable and the city received rebates or reduced dump costs. Within the last year, the end users have substantially reduced their demand for recyclable materials and prices have significantly fallen. If the recycling provider raises their dumping fees, Ogden City must determine how to absorb those increases or pass those costs on in the form of a higher monthly refuse charge. At some point, the increase cost can become unsustainable.
3) The city remains committed to recycling and Ogden City encourages residents to continue sorting recyclables and using their blue recycling bins while we work towards a resolution. We strongly encourage customers to continue sorting as normal so that when recycling deliveries resume we have clean recyclables. Also, please continue to recycle glass at designated locations. (4th Street Ballpark, Ogden City Green Waste Facility, Ogden High School parking lot).