Soon Perry residents won’t have to worry about how they place recyclable material in their bins out by the curb.  City Administrator Butch Niebuhr say the change is coming later this year as a cost saving measure.

“Residents will actually have it easier.  They’ll be able to fill the blue bins however they wish to fill it with recyclable material.  We’ll be doing like a single strain of sorting.  We’ll that that going in June for sure, but we might get that started before, once the weather warms” says Niebuhr.

Instead of processing recycling here in town, crews will be bringing the material to the metro area, which Niebuhr says does have an additional cost.

“Making trips to Des Moines we’ll be spending more and of course since we decided all that, gas prices had to jump like crazy.  So that’s something you don’t really allow for although we had higher prices like this two years ago in our budget so hopefully we’ll have some room in there to be able to handle that.”

So with the additional fuel costs, how will the city save money?  Niebuhr says primarily through the elimination of one employee position.

“The position is the main savings.  Also we’re probably going to be saving some money on what we’re doing because we won’t be bailing it.  There’s time that is spent by the employees bailing that at the recycling center right now, we’ll actually be getting rid of that bailer, getting rid of that truck and forklift, skidloader.  So there will be some equipment that gets goes by the side or gets absorbed by other departments.”

Niebuhr adds that with the recycling duties off their plate, the hope is that garbage crews will also be able to assist others in the parks and cemetery departments during the busy season.