About every week and a half, Jim Spies loads up the small kid trailer attached to his bike with flattened cardboard boxes and other recyclables and makes the one-mile trip to the nearest blue bin, in the Carondelet neighborhood of St. Louis.
Spies started this routine about a month ago, when he found out the city was no longer separating recycling from trash in his alley due to a staffing shortage.
鈥淚t鈥檚 less convenient than just walking out to our alley, but it鈥檚 not particularly inconvenient,鈥� said Spies, who鈥檚 been a bike commuter for 15 years.
鈥淲e are already overfilling landfills, we鈥檙e already trying to find places to put our trash. The more we can divert from that, the better,鈥� he said.
For the next few months, residents like Spies who want to make sure their recyclables don鈥檛 end up in landfills can bring items to .
Nick Dunne, a spokesman for the mayor鈥檚 office, said the city鈥檚 Refuse Division is on track to resume regular recycling operations by early December thanks to an uptick in hiring.
Dunne credits a new incentive program that offers a $3,000 bonus to new hires after they complete a work testing period. Applications for heavy equipment operator jobs jumped to nearly 170 last month, up from 12 in July.
But Dunne said fewer than two dozen of those applicants were certified by the city, mainly because they didn鈥檛 have a required Commercial Driver's License permit. He said the city has struggled to hire within the department for many reasons.
鈥淭he refuse job is not an easy one,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou have to operate heavy equipment, especially if you鈥檙e doing bulk pickup 鈥� there are heavier items. So there are definitely some physical limitations with that. Also I think the shortage in refuse is part of the larger shortage of labor we鈥檙e seeing across the country.鈥�
The city hired 10 full-time employees in August for the Refuse Division. But Dunne said more workers are needed.
鈥淲e鈥檙e doing everything we can to make sure people know these jobs are available to them, and we definitely want to instill civic pride with those who do want to apply and work for the city,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e just trying to remain optimistic that we can get back to providing city services at pre-COVID levels.鈥�
Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer, who represents the 13th Ward in south St. Louis, said she鈥檚 been getting complaints from constituents who weren鈥檛 aware that recycling pickup has been on hold.
鈥淚鈥檓 sure that it鈥檚 frustrating,鈥� she said. 鈥淧eople are paying for this service and they should be getting it. But we are in a pandemic, we had a hiring freeze for a long time that resulted in a shortage of drivers and the hiring freeze has affected our services.鈥�
Schweitzer said it鈥檚 important to get recycling services back as soon as possible. Once that happens, she hopes people will also think twice about what they鈥檙e recycling.
鈥淲e鈥檝e all been there looking at our recycling or looking at some item and thinking to ourselves, 鈥業 don鈥檛 know if this is recyclable, but I鈥檓 going to put it in the recycling just in case,鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淎nd that actually isn鈥檛 the best way to go about it.鈥�
Only about 30% of materials thrown into blue recycling bins in St. Louis actually get recycled, according to the mayor鈥檚 office. That鈥檚 because recyclables like glass and cardboard boxes often get mixed with food-stained items like pizza boxes and other non-recyclables.
Schweitzer said that contaminates an entire bin, which must then go to the landfill.
鈥淭here is no person who's scrubbing out peanut butter containers for us on the other end of this. And that's the reality,鈥� she said. 鈥淎ll of us need to do our part.鈥�
To check whether items are recyclable in St. Louis, .
Recycling can be dropped off at the :
Follow Corinne on Twitter: @corinnesusan
