Recycling day for many neighborhoods in the city of St.

Louis doesn't look like it used to.

The blue dumpsters are still there, but no longer full of carefully sorted materials.

For Erik Kozlowski, recycling hasn't ended.

It's just become personal.

I'll have to do a little recycling, man.

I'll have to do a little recycling.

I always was a big recycler in the city.

Stopped recycling, I noticed the alleys were just filling up with stuff that should be recycled.

And they were telling everybody to take it to their local destination.

And a lot of people, I noticed, just don't have the time.

I decided there was a service needed.

And that's why I decided to come out of retirement and and create recycles with me.

It's pretty simple.

Erik drives around neighborhoods a couple of times a week, picks up what people leave out, dumps it at the proper drop-off site, but unlike official city service workers, he's home in time to still enjoy his retirement.

Simple as that.

Off to do the recycling again.

I can't say there's really a hard part.

I mean, I like doing it.

I like moving and grooving, you know.

Just doing a little bit to help out and doing the right thing, you know.

-Last year, the city of St.

Louis made the major change of ending alley recycling pickup across most neighborhoods in the city, claiming staffing shortages, financial and practical reasons.

More than half of what was collected was contaminated with food, trash, or non-recyclables mixed in, causing entire loads to be rejected by recycling facilities.

When that happens, the city still pays recycling rates, nearly five times more per ton than trash.

In 2025, St.

Louis spent about $1.7 million on recycling disposal fees, with roughly half of what was collected ending up in the landfill anyway.

While residents with roll carts are still able to have their recycling picked up from their homes, for alley recycling, the city shifted toward more than two dozen drop-off locations.

And data shows this approach is working better so far, with contamination dropping by 83% and overall recycling increasing by 8%.

Still, this shift asks a lot of city residents.

-Do you hope that one day the services will continue from the city?

-Yes, I really do.

It would be great if they took this away from me.

I don't mind it.

I love the city of St.

Louis.

I'm a lifelong city resident.

It's tough.

It's a lot tougher than people probably know.

People just think you can change something overnight.

It's tough.

When you're dealing with the big city, you're trying to do the best for everybody and you're not going to make everybody happy.

But I'm just telling you, my experience with the city of St.

Louis forever has been very, very nice.

I've had some really, really good emails of people just thanking me for doing it, even if they're not using my service.

People that are recycling themselves have sent me some emails saying thanks for what you're doing.

Because that little bit, it's just a little bit, makes a difference.