Driver shortage impacts Fayetteville’s recycling

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (KNWA/KFTA) — The city of Fayetteville's Recycling and Trash Collection Department is experiencing a recycling driver shortage, which may affect curbside recycling routes starting Tuesday, Nov. 12.

According to a press release, no residential trash, commercial trash or commercial recycling routes, or yard-waste collection routes will be affected and will run on a normal schedule.

Residential and commercial customers placing the 18-gallon green recycling curbside bins out on their normal collection days should expect that not all recycling routes will be serviced due to the lack of drivers needed for the collections.

Unofficial results show runoff for Fayetteville mayor, approval for Sunday alcohol sales in Washington County results

The city expects the driver shortage to affect curbside recycling routes until new drivers can be hired.

The city says all efforts will be made to service as many routes as possible.

If their recycling bins are not serviced, residents and businesses are encouraged to use the city's two recycling drop-off facilities, which are available 24 hours a day:

Happy Hollow Recycling Dropoff, 1420 S. Happy Hollow Road

Marion Orton Recycling Center, 735 W. North St.

The city asks residents to help remaining drivers collect materials more efficiently by only placing these recyclable items:

Cardboard – flatten and place in a recycling bin

Mixed paper – Must be clean and dry; includes newspapers and inserts, white office paper, magazines and catalogs, junk mail, cereal and other paperboard boxes and telephone books

Steel cans – labels are acceptable; place metal lids inside steel cans

Aluminum cans – cans only

Plastic #1 bottles – caps accepted; focus on water and soda bottles

Plastic #2 bottles – caps accepted; focus on milk and detergent bottles

Glass bottles and jars – All colors, no ceramics or plate glass

The following items cannot be recycled through the city's program:

No foil pans

No plastic containers (yogurt, Tupperware, takeout)

No plastic bags

No polystyrene (#6) or Styrofoam

No paper cartons (half-gallons of milk, almond, soy milk cartons or boxes)

The city also gives recycling tips:

Rinse out bins to avoid excess grime and maggots.

No tobacco products.

Focus only on the items listed above for target recyclables. Non-recyclable materials in the bins increase sorting time and difficulty or cause them not to be collected.

Place recycling bins within six feet of the curb and at least three feet from trash carts the night before the scheduled trash day.

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KNWA FOX24.

An emperor penguin found malnourished far from its Antarctic home on the Australian south coast is being cared for by a wildlife expert, a government department said Monday. The adult male was found on Nov. 1 on a popular tourist beach in the town of Denmark in temperate southwest Australia — about 3,500 kilometers (2,200 miles) north of the icy waters off the Antarctic coast, according to a statement from the Western Australia state's Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions. The largest penguin species has never been reported in Australia before, University of Western Australia research fellow Belinda Cannell said, though some had reached New Zealand, nearly all of which is further south than Western Australia.