Kansas City is rolling out new recycling carts — with lids. When, how you can get yours

Kansas City is officially rolling out new recycling carts with lids this spring, and all households that currently receive city curbside service will get one, according to city officials.

The city will distribute the carts to nearly 162,000 homes starting in May, continuing through the end of summer, as part of the $5.4 million initiative passed last year.

In the recently passed budget, the city also dedicated some initial money to making a plan for trash carts, but those likely won’t get to residents within the next year.

The new recycling carts will replace Kansas City’s current system, where residents can purchase an open top bin or just put their recycling out in a cardboard box.

City leaders hope the new carts will shift a trend of decreased recycling in Kansas City, by making it easier for residents to recycle more items and ideally reducing the amount of waste that the city is sending to landfills.

“You see more people throwing things away versus recycling,” said public works director Michael Shaw. “You go to recycling carts to reverse that. The idea of a cart is to allow you to recycle more, because you have more capacity.”

City officials are holding a press conference on Thursday morning to discuss the recycling carts and a slate of other solid waste initiatives, including plans to beef up bulky item services and to introduce a city pilot program for food scrap composting.

‘It looks junky’

Residents and city leaders alike are looking to the new carts to help address another problem caused by the current recycling system: litter on neighborhood streets.

“It’s not a secret that our curbside bins cause litter, am I right, or am I right?” Shaw told The Star. “So you have to containerize that.”

Dozens of readers reached out to The Star as part of our coming series on trash and litter in the metro to share frustration about the lack of trash and recycling bins with lids in the city and to ask about the possibility of getting lidded containers.

Brookside resident and retired teacher David Young told The Star that he’s struggled for years with his bin spilling over either because of wind or animals, creating a mess on his street.

Over in Hyde Park, reader Hillary Howell said that she’s gotten in the habit of cleaning up her block when she gets home from work on windy recycling collection days.

“If I see it’s been blowing around, I’ll go around to the houses near mine and pick up trash out of the street, out of the gutters, out of people’s yards even,” Howell said. “It’s pretty junky.”

City manager Brian Platt said he does the same in his neighborhood.

“On the day of recycling collection, because our containers are open, if it’s windy, there’s just inevitably more debris on the streets,” Platt said.

The new 64-gallon blue and yellow rolling recycling carts will come with a lid and will be able to withstand wind gusts up to about 40 mph, according to a tweet from Shaw.

“I think it’s a great idea. I absolutely will participate and I think it’s great that the city is passing them out,” Young said.

Who gets a new cart?

Every household currently receiving curbside recycling service from the city will get a new 64-gallon cart that will be registered to their address.

The carts will be delivered to residences free of charge.

We don’t yet know which neighborhoods will get carts first, but we will update this story when we learn more.

Neighborhoods that privately contract for trash service, businesses and apartments with more than six units will not be eligible for curbside recycling pick up.

The new carts will be property of the city, and each will have a small RFID chip, which will be registered to each address and help the city track any misplaced or lost carts.

Shaw said the chips will also be used to monitor whether a cart was picked up for collection. If anything does happen to the carts, the city will maintain the repairs and replacement of the carts for residents.

“It’s about quality control. We’ll also know if the carts are in the right location,” Shaw said during a South KC Alliance community meeting in March.

How will the new recycling program work?

The recycling carts will be significantly bigger than the current bins available to residents. They will have wheels and instructions on the top.

“On the lid of the cart, it’s actually going to say what you can recycle,” Shaw said. “And it’s going to have a QR code on there that you can scan and be sent to the city’s website that remains updated on you know, what’s going on with recycling and those types of things.”

If there are any items that don’t fit into the carts, like cardboard boxes, residents should break them down as much as possible and place them in a bin or cardboard box next to the cart. Boxes can be broken down and set next to the cart.

Just for context, residents should recycle things like printable paper, cardboard, some kinds of plastic containers and metal cans.

Items do not need to be sorted, but residents should make sure there are no glass or plastic bags in the bin before pick-up. There is no limit to how much someone can recycle.

Many other materials, including glass, must be taken to special facilities for recycling. For a breakdown of what else you can and cannot recycle, visit here.

How can you recycle before you get a cart?

The current recycling program asks residents to go to a local Ace Hardware store or Price Chopper to get a recycling bin for $9.

Residents can also use a bin or cart that is 32 gallons or smaller as long as it’s labeled with a recycling symbol so it is easily recognizable from the curb for pick-up, such as a cardboard box.

What if I don’t want a new recycling cart?

Any household can choose to opt out of receiving a recycling cart. To opt out of getting a new cart, contact 311.

Why are we getting new carts now?

Last year, Kansas City Council approved a plan to spend $5.4 million on recycling carts. Now all eligible households will have a new recycling bin by the end of September.

Each individual cart costs the city just under $48.50 each, according to Shaw.

Shaw said that the choice to invest in recycling carts is a part of the city’s effort to minimize waste.

“We want you to recycle more,” Shaw said during a South KC Alliance meeting in March.

Are trash carts coming too?

Not yet.

Along with the effort to get recycling carts, there is a push from city council members to also get trash carts for every household.

The city set aside $1 million for trash carts in the recently passed budget, however there is no set plan for how that money will be spent or when residents will see those trash carts.

“I hope someone would champion finishing that because I’d like to see it happen even if I’m not here to finish it,” 1st District Councilwoman Heather Hall said during the February budget hearing.

Initially, the city council proposed $17 million for both recycling carts and trash carts. Earlier drafts of the budget had at least $8 million in funding going towards buying trash carts according to city council members, 3rd District City Councilwoman Robinson said.

“It’s frustrating, I shall say, that when we pass a policy we’re expecting to have a level of results from that, and to have one million dollars when we asked for eight million is concerning,” Robinson said.

Platt said that the $1 million allotment will allow the department to start making a plan for how to roll out free trash carts.

“We don’t know how much this is going to cost,” Platt said. “It may not be until next budget year that we end up having to write a check for these, who knows how this is going to go but this is going to get us going.”

What questions do you have about recycling or trash around Kansas City? Ask us at kcq@kcstar.com, or use the form below.