Ledyard Gets Recycling Report Card

Two months after single-stream recycling became a reality in town, it’s official: Ledyard residents are throwing stuff away that could be recycled.

Winston Averill, Regional Recycling Coordinator for the Southeastern Connecticut Regional Resources Recovery Authority, spent time recently following garbage trucks around. He reported his findings this week to the Ledyard Town Council.

Under the new system, which took effect July 1, items that would traditionally go into the trash, such as cardboard boxes, plastic toys, buckets and metal pots and pans, can now go into the blue recycling boxes.

As Averill discovered, however, not all residents have moved these items from the trash to the recycling bin.

“I think I drove every street in Ledyard,” he said. In his samples of the houses he found that the toys and pans were still going into the trash rather than recycling. Paper, cereal and pasta boxes were also absent in the blue boxes.

“That is an area we need to emphasize,” Averill said. He also said that residents should be informed that electronics should be taken to the transfer station on 117 rather than thrown away, and that clothes could go into drop boxes as well.

The council iscussed whether they should supply bins to houses that didn’t have them out, or use larger containers to encourage residents to recycle more waste.

Some councilors noted that they had been confused about what they could and couldn’t recycle and also discussed the down sides of an open container on a windy day.

On the whole, Averill said Ledyard residents were doing a “better-than-average job” with the recycling program. He said he was seeing more compliance than in other municipalities, such as New London.