Battle Creek curbside recycling customers will see a change to every-other-week curbside recycling service starting the week of May 6.
This is a delay from the originally planned start date, so that the city and Waste Management can ensure the community has the information needed to make the transition.
Please note that this change is for recycling only – trash pickup will continue weekly.
City of Battle Creek officials and Waste Management made the decision to change curbside recycling pickup to every other week in response to the increased costs and national recycling market disruption caused by China’s National Sword Policy. Under the policy, China is no longer accepting plastic waste for recycling, after doing so for many years.
City customers will receive a brochure in their April water bills with helpful information about what to recycle and what not to recycle, drop-off recycling centers around the county, additional recycling cart rental, and more. The calendar schedule for the next year will be printed in the brochure, but maps will be available separately soon – because the city has daily pickup, there are five sets of maps, and this will make them easier to read and understand.
Look for the maps, and a repeat of the schedule calendar, on the city’s website – battlecreekmi.gov/recycling – and in hard copy at the city’s Department of Public Works, 150 S. Kendall St., and City Hall, 10 N. Division St. These will become available in April, ahead of the change.
City customers who consistently fill the 96-gallon recycling cart can choose to rent a second cart from Waste Management, starting at $3.25 per month. Call WM customer service at 866-797-9018 to do this. There is a Waste Management drop-off recycling center customers may use at no cost – 4547 Wayne Road in Springfield. Also available at no cost are the Calhoun County recycling centers in Albion and Marshall. More information on all of these is at battlecreekmi.gov/recycling.
The city has an average contamination rate of 25 percent, meaning a quarter of all items picked up by WM recycling trucks is actually trash. To help combat this, please keep all recycled items loose (NOT bagged); make sure items are clean and dry before placing them in your recycling cart; and if you’re not 100 percent certain an item can be recycled, please throw it out.
The city’s waste hauling contract will be re-bid in late 2020, to go into effect in April of 2021.