Louisiana city discontinues its recycling program

The city of Pineville, Louisiana, has announced it will discontinue its recycling program because of contamination issues, KALB reports.

In a Facebook post, the City of Pineville explained that waste was continually being thrown into recycling bins and that the process of removing waste items from the recyclable materials had become unsustainable.

The city partnered with the Louisiana National Guard starting in 2023 for the program, according to KALB, which allowed residents to deposit recyclables through designated recycling bins, with materials sorted and delivered by the National Guard.

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“What began with promise, supported in cooperation with the Louisiana National Guard, has unfortunately come to an end,” reads the post. “We’re truly saddened that despite our best efforts, the program faced insurmountable challenges. We consistently found things like milk jugs mixed in with clear plastic bottles, and far too often, household garbage found its way into the containers meant for recyclables. Even after changing our signage and moving the bins to our Public Works Department, hoping for a clearer understanding of what was acceptable, the contamination persisted. The reality is that the intensive hours our dedicated personnel spent manually sorting through these materials, trying to salvage what little could be sent to the National Guard, became unsustainable.”

City officials say they will search for a more effective and sustainable solution to bring recycling back to the city in the future.