After its arrival in July, the Selma recycling program continues to expand, following the vision of Ward 2 councilwoman Susan Keith and the motto, “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” When throwing recyclables into the bins, it is not unusual to find bins overflowing with paper and plastic.

This week Keith announced new recycling equipment would arrive Friday, including 50 small bins that would be placed throughout the city.

“There will be six small recycling bins per ward now,” Keith said. “Recycling has just taken hold a lot quicker than we thought it would — we had no idea what to expect.”

Even though the recycling company originally planned to come and pick up the major bins throughout the city once a week, they are currently picking them up two and three times per week.

“That s a good problem to have,” she said. “It has been a real challenge because we weren’t prepared for the level of success that this has been but we have been working on that because we certainly don’t want people to get discouraged to stop and curtail the recycling.”

The new bins that will be distributed throughout the wards were provided by a grant from K&B Plastic and the Southeastern Recycling Conference. The bins, slightly smaller than city garbage cans, will be placed in areas councilmembers will determine.

“The whole concept is to keep everything clean and also go green,” Keith said about the new bins. “These bins wont necessarily be drop-off points, but they will help in keeping the wards clean.”

The Selma recycling program kicked off in July and Keith said there were plans to grow the program throughout the whole historic trail of Selma to Montgomery.

“So far it has gone part of the way through Lowndes County,” Keith said. “But it has been so big in Selma that we have not even been able to do the level that we wanted to [with that expansion].”

The recycling bins will arrive this week at City Hall and council people will meet with their committees to determine their location. Currently the large red drop-off centers for paper, cardboard and plastic remain at the location in Bloch Park, the old Walmart location and near Washington Street Supermarket.