Lawrence recycling contamination rises, adding costs for city taxpayers
A 17.5% contamination rate means Lawrence will keep paying recycling surcharges, adding tens of thousands of dollars to local bills.
Lawrence taxpayers are still paying more to recycle because too much of what lands in blue carts is not actually recyclable. A spring 2026 audit found contamination at 17.5%, up from 15.1% in the previous fall review, keeping the city in the higher-cost tier of its hauling contract.
The audit examined about 33,600 pounds of material from randomly selected residential recycling carts. More than 3,700 pounds of that contamination was pre-sort trash, the kind of material that can spoil an entire load once it reaches the recycling processor. Under Lawrence’s rate structure, the city pays a base of $71.36 per ton, then adds a $7.50 surcharge once contamination goes above 10% and another $7.50 when it goes above 15%, bringing the current total to $86.36 per ton. With 4,771 tons of recyclables processed in the previous year, the surcharge quickly becomes a budget problem that reaches every household through city rates and utility bills.
City officials have been warning for months that the problem is not just about tidiness at the curb. Ron Green, the city’s solid-waste manager, has said Lawrence has been trying to educate residents about the environmental, safety and financial risks, especially when prohibited items such as batteries, electronics, cellphones, sharp metals and vape pens end up in the stream. Those items can cause fires, injuries and equipment damage, turning a simple sorting mistake into a costly hazard.
The trend has been moving the wrong way for a while. Lawrence reported a contamination rate of 10.7% in November 2023, then 17.3% by October 2024. That jump prompted the city’s Did You Know? social-media campaign in January 2025, along with updated cart labels that included recycling guidelines and a QR code linked to the city’s recyclable materials database. Even after Lawrence marked 10 years of curbside recycling with a celebration at Lawrence Public Library in November 2024, the latest audit showed that public habits still have not caught up with the system.
The contract side matters just as much as the behavior side. Lawrence’s recycling-services agreement dates to April 2013, with the current version approved in October 2022. In early 2026, Hamm Material Recovery Facility was sold to Allied Waste Systems Inc., a Republic Services subsidiary, and city leaders consented to the sale while keeping the contract unchanged. Michael Leos, the city spokesman, has said the rate structure remains in place, which means the city’s next savings will depend on fewer dirty carts and fewer contaminated loads.
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