New Recycling Bins delivered to City of Midland residents

On June 5, the City of Midland’s new contract with GFL Environmental began the rollout of its new black and green, 95-gallon recycling bins to all curbside recycling customers in Midland. Residents will receive a new bin, an informational sheet, a schedule, and a letter about the collection service.
Melissa Farley is the public services manager for the City of Midland.
Melissa Farley, public services manager for the City of Midland, says the new recycling bins are a result of Republic Services’ contract ending. “We have been with Republic Services for a very long time, and our contract was up with them starting in July of this year,” she says, “We decided to go out to bid to see if there were any other waste management companies that would be interested in taking on our recycling. We had three different companies go out for bid, and GFL Environmental was the one who received the bid.”

Farley says residents do not have to be home in order to receive their new cart delivery. GFL will deliver bins to every address of each recycling customer in the City of Midland. 

“With the bin, there will also be a packet of information about if you don’t want the bin, how to have us come up and pick up the bin. There’s also information about how to lease an additional bin from GFL as well,” she says. 

Farley says residents can put out their old brown bin on their typically scheduled recycling day, and Republic will pick up the bin. Most residents’ recycling schedules will remain the same, but around 100 residents will see changes in days. These residents have received a letter informing them of these changes.
GFL Environmental will begin providing service in the city on July 1.
With this new contract, come a few changes that residents can expect. GFL accepts a few items that other competing companies typically don’t allow. “GFL actually does accept pizza boxes, even if there is grease on the box. A lot of recycling contractors don’t, but they do,” Farley says. “Another change to recycling is that currently, we only accept clear glass, but our new recycling contractor accepts all colored glass.”

Farley gives some friendly tips on recycling, which will also be highlighted in the informational packets delivered to customers. “GFL won’t collect boxes outside of the bin, so they either need to be broken down and put inside the bin, or if you want to keep those boxes how they are, you can put them out for your heavy items collection,” she says.

Collection of weekly refuse, yard waste and recycling via GFL will officially begin on July 1. “We are very excited to work with GFL Environmental and know they’ll provide our residents with exceptional service,” Farley says.