San Marcos — The city and Texas Disposal Systems (TDS) say residential solid waste customers have almost doubled the amount of recyclable materials being collected with the introduction of single stream recycling.
The initial three-month totals for April, May and June reveal that an average of 101 tons of recyclable materials per month are now being collected from San Marcos residents.
That compares to approximately 52 tons of recyclable materials per month collected in the three months prior to the launch of single stream.
Recycling reduced the amount of solid waste going to the landfill by an additional 147 tons in the first three months, officials said.
Launched at the beginning of April, single stream recycling in San Marcos has expanded the list of acceptable materials and allowed residential solid waste customers to put all their recyclables, unsorted, into a larger cart provided by TDS.
In a recent presentation to the San Marcos City Council, TDS also unveiled its plans to launch the first residential recycling incentives rewards program in Central Texas.
The SMART (Select Materials Are Reused for Tomorrow) Rewards program is scheduled to begin later this year and will offer residential customers an opportunity to receive incentives in the form of coupons to local businesses for taking part in single stream recycling. The free program will be available to all San Marcos residential single stream customers who elect to take part.
Details on the program and specifics on how to take part will soon be mailed to all residential customers. For additional information about SMART Rewards, visit www.tdssmartrewards.com.
For more information about single stream recycling in San Marcos, call Public Services at 393-8026, or visit www.sanmarcostx.gov/recycle.
