The Lexington Recycle Center will be shut down, and curbside collection of residential and business recyclables will be suspended, for several weeks beginning Monday, April 13, according to an April 8 press release from the office of Lexington mayor Linda Gorton.
Nancy Albright, Lexington’s Commissioner of Environmental Quality and Public Works, said a shaft that moves the recyclables for sorting broke down Tuesday. The company that makes parts for the equipment is shut down for at least three weeks because of the COVID-19 epidemic.
“Over the past year we have been making long overdue improvements to the equipment at the recycling center,” Albright said. “This equipment was scheduled to be overhauled.”
Clean paper recycling is not affected. People can continue to take their clean paper - newspapers, office paper, paper mail, magazines and catalogs - to the yellow recycling bins located around town. (Click here for a list of drop-off locations for paper recycling, and see below for the types of paper products accepted at the yellow bins.)
Citizens can collect other recyclables at home until the recycling center reopens.
The other cities served by the recycling center have been notified of the shutdown. The center serves communities throughout Central Kentucky.