Baltimore resumes weekly curbside recycling collection

The city of Baltimore has resumed weekly collection of curbside recycling bins nearly four years after operations were initially reduced, the Baltimore Banner reports.

Officials first scaled back curbside recycling to every other week in 2020 due to pandemic-related staffing shortages, supply chain delays and increased recycling tonnage as residents stayed home.

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Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott brought back weekly services in 2021, a month after his inauguration. But a year later, he cut back the services once again, citing continued difficulties.

To get the program back up and running, Scott says the city needed to hire more workers, expand its fleet of vehicles and optimize routes for crews.

The vacancy rate for solid waste workers is at 8.6 percent, the lowest rate since before the pandemic, Scott tells the Banner. Because of supply chain delays, the city has only received 20 of the 80 new recycling trucks it ordered in 2021. However, crews that used to rely on paper maps to navigate routes are now using modernized GPS systems, which helped reduce the number of necessary stops from 2,600 down to 1,800, according to the report.