San Mateo RethinkWaste Customers Get New Recycling System
SAN MATEO (BCN) -- After years of planning and preparing, residents of the RethinkWaste service area of San Mateo County are getting a new system for recycling, composting and garbage collection on Monday.
Starting Monday, Recology San Mateo County will be servicing over 92,000 homes, taking over recycling and garbage collection from Allied Waste, according to Recology spokeswoman Gina Simi.
RethinkWaste, also known as the South Bayside Waste Management Authority, oversees the collection services for an area that includes Atherton, Belmont, Burlingame, East Palo Alto, Foster City, Hillsborough, Menlo Park, Redwood City, San Carlos, and San Mateo.
The new 3-cart system, called CartSMART, entails single-stream recycling so residents are not required to separate their recyclables, Simi said.
Recology will also collect recyclables and compost weekly, as opposed to the current system of every other week.
Recology won the contract back in 2008 and have been working to establish an expansive, and hopefully seamless, transition since day one, Simi said.
"It was a huge undertaking," Simi said. "This transition is one of the largest of its kind in the nation and the first of its kind for the service area."
With a fleet of 127 brand new, fully automated collection vehicles, the new service will be much faster and more efficient, Simi said.
"This will long be remembered as a signature environmental event on the Peninsula as nearly 440,000 people will now enjoy the most modern, convenient and comprehensive recycling and composting services anywhere in Northern California," said Kevin McCarthy, executive director of RethinkWaste.
Some residents got a sneak preview of the new system in a "soft launch" that started in August 2010.
"It was received very well," Simi said.
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