City residents may soon be adding cardboard to their recycling schedule.

At its Thursday meeting, the Auburn City Council will discuss an ordinance amendment to add cardboard to the list of items required to be recycled. The council would then likely vote on the ordinance the following week. If passed, it would be implemented starting January 1, said city sanitation supervisor Mike Talbot.

Talbot said the addition would include heavier duty cardboard, like storage or paper boxes, and thinner cardboard items, including cereal boxes and soda cartons.

Items containing “wet foods,” like milk cartons and pizza boxes, would not be included, he said.

Currently, recycled items - glass and metal, plastics and newspapers - are picked up on a three-week rotating schedule, and Talbot said the cardboard items would be implemented into the rotation to be picked up every four weeks.

“There's a learning curve involved, we just have to get (the public) used to it,” he said.

The state requires municipalities to have recycling programs, and Talbot said it's encouraged to include an extensive amount of recyclable material in the program.

Adding cardboard to the program would also greatly reduce the waste stream to the city's landfill, which will help to prolong the cell life at the landfill, he said.

The city opened a new recycling facility at the landfill a few years ago.

If the amendment is passed, people will always have the option of taking cardboard to the landfill themselves rather than waiting four weeks, Talbot said.

If you go

What: Auburn City Council meeting

When: 5 p.m. Thursday

Where:

Council chambers, Memorial City Hall, South Street