MONTREAL (RecyclingMonster): Keep Alliance Beautiful (KAB) and the City of Alliance, Nebraska, have partnered on a new curbside recycling pilot that will initially serve 50 households while giving qualifying participants an opportunity to offset their service cost through utility-bill credits.

Curbside collection is scheduled to begin during the first week of October as part of the city's broader recycling and waste-reduction efforts.

50 Households Can Join the Recycling Pilot

The program will initially accept 50 households on a first-come, first-served basis. Participants will pay $120 for one year of service.

Households that properly prepare and sort their recyclable materials will receive a $5 utility-bill credit for each successful pickup. If participants meet the program requirements throughout the year, the credits could offset the full annual service fee.

Pilot Requires Materials to Be Sorted, Clean and Dry

Unlike Alliance's existing single-stream curbside recycling service, participants in the pilot must separate their recyclable materials and keep them clean and dry.

KAB will provide each participating household with a 55- to 60-gallon green collection bag and identifying labels.

KAB said having materials sorted before collection is expected to reduce the amount of manual processing required. The organization also said the program is intended to reduce the volume of recyclable material sent to landfill.

Pilot Accepts Plastics, Cans, Paper and Small Electronics

Accepted materials include various plastics, steel and aluminum cans, paper, small cardboard, household batteries, small electronics and Hefty EnergyBag plastics.

Large flattened corrugated cardboard may be placed separately for collection.