Residential curbside recycling is set to resume in Oberlin on Tuesday, Nov. 18 after a nearly eight-month hiatus. Last February’s garage fire destroyed the city’s recycling trucks, temporarily halting the service.

In preparation for the resumption of the Tuesday through Friday residential collection, the city began distributing 64-gallon toter carts on Nov. 11, one with a black lid for refuse and one with a blue lid for recycling.

The new recycling system will include two brand new Autocar E3 Chassis collection trucks complete with automated side load collection systems, making recycling collection more sustainable and efficient for employees and residents alike. According to Autocar, the new hydraulic hybrid garbage truck consumes 30 to 50 percent less fuel than a conventional garbage truck.

Another important change to the city of Oberlin’s recycling efforts is the single-stream recycling program, which eliminates the need for sorting recyclables before collection. According to Jeff Baumann, the city’s public works director, the new system will only require residents to separate commercial cardboard from the rest of their recyclables.

“I think that many residents will find it more convenient to recycle,” said Baumann about the newly implemented single-stream recycling program.

The city of Oberlin has provided residential curbside source-separate recycling to its residents since 1994. Residents were expected to separate their recyclables before pickup by a 2009 Crane Carrier truck, charged with collection from 525 households per day. After the fire in mid-February, recycling rates plummeted by over half.

In the absence of curbside recycling pickup, Oberlin College’s Resource Conservation Team has been collecting all the College recyclables from academic buildings, dorms and other College facilities and delivering that waste to a recycling facility two miles away.

“We were doing the runs because the city wasn’t doing any,” said College sophomore and member of the RCT Andrea Allen. “We still wanted Oberlin students to recycle.”

Though only residential recycling will resume next week, the city is working on resuming commercial recycling as well.

“Once the residential sector is set up and operational, we’ll be focusing on expanding recycling collection services in the commercial sector,” said Eric Norenberg, city manager and member of the Oberlin Community Improvement Corporation Board, in an email to the Review.

Commercial recycling is slated to start up during the month of December.

“It’s our goal to set this up and … work out bugs in January, and when everyone returns in February, it should be running smoothly,” said Baumann in an email to the Review.

Baumann added that the city hopes to make recycling mandatory for all residents by July of 2015.