St. Petersburg rolled out its new curbside recycling program Monday.

Recycling trucks rolled through the city's Zone 1 for recycling Monday morning. Residents can now place their blue recycling containers on the curb to be picked up twice a month by one of the city’s new seven recycling trucks.

Beginning in Zone 1, new city recycling trucks will move zone by zone throughout the city over the coming weeks to collect recycling.

On Tuesday trucks will begin collections in Zone 3, while residents in Zones 5 and 7 will have their recycling collected July 2 and 3, respectively.

Recycling containers may be placed at the curb as early as 7 p.m. the night before collection or by 7 a.m. on collection day. Containers should be removed from the street by 7 p.m. the same day following collection.

The city handed out 76,000 containers to homes in June.

“As recycling increases and solid waste decreases as we expect to occur, we may be able to increase recycling pickups and decrease solid waste pickups,” Mayor Rick Kriseman said.

But neighbors in Historic Old Northeast aren’t completely on board with the program. They would like their recycling containers to be picked up in the alleys behind their homes, like their trash.

"Given that these alleys have been here for 100 years and that they are clearly 40 percent of the neighborhoods, why didn’t we buy smaller trucks to begin with?" Peter Motzenbecker, President of the Historic Old Northeast Neighborhood Association, said.

Some residents said they are struggling to move the heavy container to the front of their homes.

"I have to wheel it from the back of my house through landscaping and down several steps to get it to the sidewalk,” Historic Old Northeast neighbor Betty Smith said.

Mayor Kriseman said the city will use the first pick-up period to assess how things are working and make changes if needed.

“I suspect and hope that even the handful of residents who want their recycle containers picked up in the alley will eventually come around,” Kriseman said.

Residential customers are advised to visit www.stpete.org/recycle for a collection schedule and zone locations. You can also download the App called St. Pete Collects in Apple Store or for Android.

Curbside recycling in St. Petersburg may include:

  • Glass Containers (all colors)
  • Aluminum & Steel cans, steel jar lids
  • Milk & Juice cartons, drink boxes
  • Plastics #1-7 (containers with numbered triangles)
  • Newspapers, magazines, mail, shopping ads, windowed envelopes
  • Mixed Paper/Cardboard