Selma will bring in the New Year with an expanded recycling program.

The Selma City Council’s recycling committee met Monday to discuss expanding the city’s recycling program. With the help of a $57, 853 grant from Alabama Department of Environmental Management, the committee has plans to purchase new recycling equipment and hopefully improve upon the city’s current recycling program that has developed some problems of overflowing bins.

“We need to fix it. I’m ashamed of it,” committee chairwoman and Selma City Councilwoman Susan Keith said as she looked at a picture of mounds of trash inside recycling bins with several pieces of it on the ground directly outside the bins. “Nobody wants to look out and see this.”

During the meeting, the committee discussed possibly getting an additional seven recycling bins, possible locations for those bins and adding mulch to the list of items people can recycle in Selma.

A large portion of the meeting focused on the issue of overflowing recycling bins.

Alden Holly, the field director for the city’s recycling, said the city produces about six tons of recyclable items every month.

Holly said that cardboard takes up a lot of space in the bins, and he is interested in purchasing a cardboard-specific bins that would create three times more space in the bin.

Holly said the bins have a hole where cardboard is placed inside. Once the cardboard is put in the hole, the cardboard is layered neatly in the bin.

“It should make it look a little nicer,” Holly said.

The committee also considered getting security cameras that will monitor people placing items into the bins. He said there has been numerous times when they have found household trash and large furniture in the bins, which contributes to the issue of overflowing bins.

Keith suggested the committee consider recycling mulch.

“I have always wanted to have our leaves and our tree limbs shredded into mulch,” Keith said.

She said that not only would the city profit, but it would reduce the amount of lose limbs clogging up the sewers.

“What part of that is not a win,” Keith asked.

Holly said he was willing to have them placed anywhere as long as it allowed for enough space to reach the bins.

“I’m willing to go anywhere as long as we have a long good locations where my truck can get to it easily,” Holly said.

Keith said the recycling committee is planning to have another meeting toward the end of January to discuss further information about the expansion of the city’s recycling program.

The next meeting will include determining the new locations for the bins.