The City of Savannah has launched a new initiatives focused on deploying permanent recycling containers to the City’s public spaces.

Last week the City installed 27 new ornamental single stream recycling bins on River Street to help keep the city clean and green. The bins can be used to dispose of recyclables, including plastic cups and bottles, glass bottles, metal cans, cardboard and newspaper.

“We’re extremely pleased to bring recycling to River Street,” said City of Savannah Sanitation Bureau Chief Gene Prevatt. “Recycling can help extend the life of our landfill, and we encourage everyone to make good use of these new containers.”

The new bins follow a successful nine-month pilot recycling program on River Street in 2015, which utilized temporary containers. The results of the pilot program included:
• Reduced overall litter along River Street by approximately 50%
• Reduced trash collected by approximately 60%
• 6.9 tons of recyclables recovered from River Street

The River Street effort is one phase of a larger initiative that is promoting sustainability initiatives throughout the community, including additional recycling containers in our public spaces. Savannah’s curbside recycling program launched in 2009, and today collects roughly 10,000 tons of recyclables annually.

“As the first permanently installed recycling in Savannah’s public spaces, this is a great milestone,” said Nick Deffley, director of Environmental Services and Sustainability for the City of Savannah. “We are conserving natural resources, saving landfill space, and telling the over 13 million annual visitors to our City that Savannah recycles.”