Council Bluffs is going green this summer. Curbside pickup of recyclables begins in July.

Recyclers in Council Bluffs now have two choices. Either take your bottles and cans to bins at area stores or drive recyclables to the city's recycling center at 24th Street and Highway 275.

A third option will soon be available, curbside pickup. Shannon Meister of the Council Bluffs Department of Public Health says it's long overdue.

"Sometime in June, everybody who's on city trash service will get a couple of bins and they'll be able to put out their curbside trash every week. One week they'll put out paper and glass, the other week they'll put out plastics and metal together."

The city recycling center already handles tons of recyclables that otherwise would end up in landfills.

"It's been good so far, but I think curbside will definitely expand the services. A lot of people simply don't have time to drop stuff off either at our drop-off locations or here,” says Meister.

“It's great for retired people, it's great if you have a day off, you can run stuff over, but otherwise it's never too far to the curb."

Don't worry about sorting everything. It all gets hand sorted at the recycling center. The new program should keep employees busy.

"We run about 1,300 tons a year, so we estimate that will at least double if not triple."

If that's the case, in the long run we all come out ahead. "Residents have easier access to recycling, will hopefully create some more jobs, at least temporary jobs if nothing else,” says Meister.

“It'll take more things out of the landfill and be recycled and that's great and most of our materials stay locally in Iowa or in Nebraska right over across the river in Omaha."

The curbside program begins on July 1st. The city will award a new contract to a trash provider. A media blitz closer to July is expected to let residents know how the program works.