As summer tourists descend on Rehoboth Beach, they’ll find new recycling bins along the boardwalk.
Sixty-five recycling bins are now available up and down the one-mile Boardwalk.
The city wanted to place the bins along the Boardwalk in the summer of 2020, but the pandemic paused that plan. Last year, city officials weren't able to hire the staff needed to monitor and empty the bins.
And City of Rehoboth public works director Kevin Williams says the message they want to get out is they are only for specific items, “So we’re doing just bottles and cans. And the lids on the barrels - the trash barrels themselves - just have a small round opening so you can just get cans and bottles in.”
But Williams notes early on they are seeing lots of other things, “Well we get the typical diapers (laughs), food - a lot of food and drink, liquids spill in and a lot of food waste - things like that. So a cross section of just about everything you find in the regular can - which just so happens to be sitting right next to the recycle can.”
Williams points out that those other items “contaminate” the recycling bin and force it to be emptied into the regular trash, which defeats the purpose of recycling.
He says all the bins - trash and recycle - are monitored and are normally emptied twice daily.
