TUCSON, Ariz. - Back in September, the City of Tucson changed the schedule for recycling pickup, a move the director for the Environment and General Services Department said has produced the exact result they predicted.
Carlos De La Torre, the director of the Environmental and General Services Department told KGUN9 in the past two months the department has been able to reduce ovetime hours worked, maintenance costs, and the amount of fuel trucks used for recycling pickup.
De La Torre added that while the department has seen a reduction where they expected, they have not seen a reduction in the amount of recyclables they are taking in.
"The other thing we noticed is we haven't seen a significant drop in the recyclables nor have we seen an increase in the trash," said De La Torre.
De La Torre added the department expected to be flooded with calls from residents after the changes went into effect, however, he said that wasn't the case.
He said there were not any more calls into the department than usual.
Before the recycling pickup changes went into effect, De La Torre said they were seeing recycling bins only one half or one third full. He added that while some residents were concerned their blue bins would be overflowing by the time they were picked up, for many that has not been the case.
De La Torre said just over 400 people in Tucson have requested and received a second blue bin sicne the recycling changes went into effect.
"We're seeing the numbers pretty stable and we're actually seeing the bins fuller than what we'd seen them in the past," said De La Torre.
