Matthew Moore: Last week, I spoke with Fayetteville Mayor Molly Rawn about her proposal to switch the city's recycling from multi-stream curb-sorted collection to a single-stream, cart-based model. Since that interview, we have heard concerns about her proposal.
One of those people who spoke with us is Louise Mann, a former resident of Fayetteville and recycling advocate. She says single-stream recycling enables people to increase their waste output without guilt, ignoring the root issue of overconsumption—and that we should instead focus on using less.
Louise Mann: People have been conned into thinking that it’s fine to consume as much as you want, as long as you throw it in that bin and put it on the curb and it’s going to get recycled. Recycling is filthy, dirty, expensive business, and it should be our last resort. It’s not the city’s fault that they’re in the challenge. And I don’t blame Mayor Molly at all for wanting to look to the future and figuring out, you know, how are we going to handle all this stuff?
Matthew Moore: Peter Nierengarten is the environmental director for the City of Fayetteville, and he says when it comes to consumption, recycling should be our last option.
Peter Nierengarten: Reduce, reuse, recycle—in that order. So as much as we can, you know, reduce consumption of materials, make smart choices in the first place not to buy something, then that makes disposal a non-issue. If it did get purchased, how can we keep it circularly in the economy in a reuse fashion?
You know, I think about the great partnership we have with Pedal It Forward right now on taking in used bicycles and then transporting them to their facility and allowing them to repurpose those bicycles and get them back out into the community so that folks can take advantage of our trail system and our active transportation network. It’s a beautiful example of reuse. And then—yeah, as you said—recycle as a last resort. If it can’t be reduced in the first place or reused, then let’s make sure that it gets recycled properly.
Matthew Moore: Mann says she’s not convinced that a greater adoption rate or residential participation in the recycling program will outweigh the negatives of increased contamination. She points to multiple studies showing that single-stream recycling correlates with higher rates of contamination. Organic food and liquids are common contaminants, but even items like Christmas lights can spoil an entire load.
Louise Mann: I mean, golly—the City of Fort Smith was collecting curbside single-stream recycling and throwing it in the landfill, and that was going on from July 2015 until May 2017. And a gal down there sued, and she won in the lower court. And then the city took it to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court allowed them to do it.
And so this is something else we need to check on for Fayetteville—we’ll want to check on. And the legal and accounting department need to be involved. It seems that the Supreme Court said it was okay to collect curbside recycling—and they were doing it by single stream—and to go throw it in the landfill. That’s okay, because garbage and recycling were a single fee; they were the same line item. So recycling and garbage need to be broken out. I mean, I did a national survey contacting friends all over the country saying, “Please send me your bill,” because it seems that Fort Smith got away with this.
Matthew Moore: So how do you hope to reassure residents in Fayetteville that that won’t happen here?
Peter Nierengarten: Yeah, so I definitely believe that transparency and honesty with the residents and the businesses in Fayetteville is of utmost importance. If they don’t have a belief that their materials are actually being recycled, then participation and trust in the system is obviously going to suffer.
We intend to implement a new cart-based recycling program that has transparency by design. Currently, we abide by a transparency resolution. We do quarterly reporting on where all of our materials go, how much we collect of each type of material. We intend to continue that going forward and ensure that the community has the ability to go to our website and look up and see what is actually happening to all the materials that we collect.
Matthew Moore: Mann says she’s witnessed cities handle recycling programs “the right way,” and education is at the root of those initiatives.
Louise Mann: Citizens need to rise up, get involved, and they need to be the key component in a true education program—where they get people thinking beyond the bin into reduction, restoration, repair, repurpose, reuse.
Matthew Moore: Nierengarten says education will be critical in their approach to single-stream recycling in Fayetteville.
Peter Nierengarten: We have a three-pronged strategy for trying to manage contamination as part of the new cart-based recycling program.
First and foremost is robust education to the community. Bilingual education in both English and Spanish. So there’ll be social media, there’ll be mailers, magnets. There’ll be information on the lid of the cart indicating what items can and cannot be recycled.
The second part of our strategy is monitoring and feedback. Each of the trucks will have a camera system mounted on it. It’ll take a picture of the materials as it’s coming out of the cart into the truck. That system can identify contaminants, geolocate to the address, and send a postcard, email, or text message to the resident or the business with a picture of their recyclables—the non-recyclable material circled—with a request not to put those materials in the bin in the future, and then a reminder about what items can be properly recycled.
And then third is at the processing facility. The first step in the process is to remove contaminants from the recyclables. The remaining materials are then separated—paper from plastic, from aluminum, from steel. The facility uses a mix of machines—magnets that pull steel, eddy currents that push aluminum, optical sorters for plastics—and humans as well for QC checks.
We certainly have heard from the community that contamination is important, and they value the fact that our current program has a low contamination rate. We agree with that. We intend to operate a program that strives to keep contamination rates at 10% or lower.
Matthew Moore: How does this look compared to other cities in our region doing single-stream?
Peter Nierengarten: Yeah, it’s a fair question. We’ve been trying to get our hands on contamination rates from other communities. What we hear is that there are high levels of contamination. What we also see is that they’re not taking the same three-pronged approach. We’re not trying to emulate their programs.
We want to emulate best-practice cities across the country that have really low contamination rates and implement those practices here. The goal is to keep contamination rates low and show a model that works—then encourage others in Northwest Arkansas to do the same. We all share the one landfill in Tontitown, and being good stewards of that finite resource is important.
Right now, our current program has low contamination, but we’re missing a lot of recyclables. Many multifamily residents and businesses don’t have curbside recycling, and those recyclables end up in the trash. When we did a waste sort in September 2024, we found that only about 40% of total recyclables being generated in Fayetteville are actually being recycled. The other 60% are going to the landfill.
We think that’s an irresponsible use of that resource. With this program, we’ll improve access, allow more people to participate. Yes, contamination may increase, but the overall increase in recycling participation far outweighs that.
Matthew Moore: The number we’ve heard is a 70% participation rate. How did you arrive at that?
Peter Nierengarten: That’s the goal. We got that number from The Recycling Partnership. Many peer communities have seen similar increases when switching to cart-based systems. If someone participates once in a four-week period, they’re counted. We’ll go out, count households, and track that.
That’s nearly double the current participation rate—but yes, it’s achievable, especially with expanded access for multifamily and commercial users, and more convenient carts for single-family homes.
Matthew Moore: One concern we’ve heard—there will still be needles or dangerous objects in recycling. Won’t those hazards just get passed along?
Peter Nierengarten: Good question. Right now, we sort at the curb—in all kinds of weather and lighting. That’s not ideal. In the facility, we have ergonomic workstations, better lighting, PPE for workers. Hazards aren’t eliminated, but the likelihood of injury is reduced.
Matthew Moore: Do you have documentation showing how much the city gets paid for recyclables?
Peter Nierengarten: Yeah, we do. Our waste reduction coordinator, Brian Pugh, keeps a meticulous spreadsheet of all commodity pricing. It varies like oil or grain. Right now, aluminum has the highest value. Cardboard and #2 plastics (HDPE) are also valuable. #1 plastics (PET) are worth less right now. But these things fluctuate.
On average, a ton of recyclables is worth about $100. Going forward, we plan to implement a revenue share with our processor—we’ll likely get around $50 per ton. That agreement will include deductions for contamination, incentivizing both sides to keep streams clean.
Matthew Moore: Remind me—what does MRF stand for?
Peter Nierengarten: Materials Recovery Facility. We call it the “Murph.” Ours is at the transfer station in southeast Fayetteville. It’s simple: a baler with a feed belt. A more sophisticated facility would have sorters and machines upstream of the baler.
Matthew Moore: Can people visit Fayetteville’s Murph?
Peter Nierengarten: Absolutely. Just contact us to schedule. We’re happy to give tours. Our baler is currently being repaired, but we expect it operational by Friday. We also plan to offer tours of the processor facility where materials ultimately go.
Matthew Moore: What’s the most common question you’ve gotten lately?
Peter Nierengarten: People ask, “Did I miss something? Has the program changed?” The answer is no. We’re still working through City Council approval and the planning process. If Council approves the rate change in August, we’ll start ordering trucks and carts and launching the education campaign. The rollout will still be months away.
Matthew Moore: Anything I missed?
Peter Nierengarten: I’d just say that recycling is really important to the people of Fayetteville. We knew that already. We appreciate the questions and feedback. We don’t want to make a change that’s not a good fit. It’s important for residents and businesses to feel heard. Recycling is one of those services that lets people engage in sustainability every week. It supports the city’s climate action plan and environmental goals.
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