St. Pete residents with alley access have known since September they would be able to start taking recycling bins to the alley where trash is collected instead of to the curb sometime in January. But now there’s a more specific date.
In a tweet Tuesday, St. Pete Mayor Rick Kriseman announced that alley recycling pickup would begin January 25 and that more details would follow. City Council is set to hear a staff report on alley recycling at its meeting Thursday.
The move came after a rocky rollout in which residents in neighborhoods where trash is collected in alleys argued it didn’t make sense to have recycling picked up at the curb.
Those neighborhoods make up about 40 percent of the city’s homes and often have fenced-in front yards not conducive to rolling bins to the curb. Streets in those neighborhoods also tend to have cars parked along the side, making pickup difficult.
The Kriseman administration’s failure to immediately address the inconvenience to people living in traditional neighborhoods sparked controversy in areas like Historic Old Northeast, parts of downtown and Historic Kenwood. There residents can be seen lugging the 90 gallon blue bins across front yards to the curb on recycling day as trucks struggle to navigate crowded street parking.
Kriseman did begin working to accommodate those homes early in the rollout process. Initially they said the alleys were too small to accommodate the large trucks purchased to pick up recycling. Instead the city purchased new trucks that are smaller and rear loading to accommodate the tight squeeze in alleys.
It’s possible that alley-access residents may see changes to their recycling schedules. Updates should appear on the city’s website or through the St. Pete Collects mobile app.
