Beginning Sept. 2, yard waste bags (on sale at several Brookings-area businesses) will be picked up by city sanitation workers on Thursdays and Fridays, while branch collection moves to Mondays and Tuesdays. The dripping-wet bags above are waiting on an Indian Hills curb for their ride to the Brookings Regional Landfill Monday. Also beginning next month, residents can put glass and more plastic products in their recycling pile, which will be picked up in a single sort.

Brookings Regional Landfill Director Bob McGrath says city yard waste and branch collection days are about to change.

And local residents soon will be able to put even more recyclables including glass and additional plastic products on their curbs for a new singlestream pick-up .

The changes will take affect Sept. 2.

McGrath says that yard waste bags and branch pick-up days are flip-flopping .

Brookings sanitation workers will soon be picking up yardwaste bags on Thursdays and Fridays. Branch collection will move to Mondays and Tuesdays. Garbage and recycling days will remain unchanged: McGrath said residents with Monday garbage pickup have Thursday recycling collection, and Tuesday garbage customers put recyclables out for Friday pick-up .

But Brookings residents who now put their recyclables into two sorts one for paper products and the other for No. 1 and 2 plastics, aluminum, steel and tin will begin in early September putting everything into one bag or container.

With that change comes an expanded list of items consumers can include in the weekly recycling collection.

McGrath says that beginning Sept. 2, Brookings Regional Landfill workers will collect for single-stream recycling:

- Paper products newspaper , office paper, junk mail, magazines, phone books, light colored paper, cardboard boxes and corrugated cardboard (only clean, dry and unbound items accepted; no paper towels, facial tissues, wax-coated card- board, sticky notes, bright-colored paper, wax paper, photographs or gift wrap)

- Aluminum, steel and tin products drinks and food cans, clean tin foil and baking trays (rinse cans and containers and remove labels; no batteries , pesticide or herbicide containers , contaminated foil or aerosol or paint cans)

- Plastic products Nos. 1-7 accepted (rinse containers and remove labels; no lids, pesticide caps, antifreeze or oil containers , toys, flower pots or Styrofoam products)

- Glass products Clear, amber and green glass (rinse jars and bottles and remove labels; fluorescent light bulbs not accepted)

The landfill director says Brookings residents won't have to pre-sort their recyclables much longer because items collected are soon going to be baled at Cook's Wastepaper and Recycling and then hauled to Millennium Recycling in Sioux Falls. That business will open bales and sort the collection there. Millennium's larger market and services are allowing residents here to put out a wider variety of materials for recycling.

The change is a new convenience for more than just local property owners and tenants. Picking up recyclables all in one sort will be faster for city workers .

McGrath added that with the growth of the city, it's taking landfill employees longer to pick up garbage on Mondays and Tuesdays.

With less and less time available on those days after garbage pick-up , and with Thursday and Friday recycling collection expected to proceed more quickly, moving yard waste collection to the second half of the week will give employees more time to do their work.

McGrath says the recycling change adding more items to the list of accepted materials means there could be less material coming to the regional landfill, therefore extending its life overall.

The Brookings Regional Landfill, at its current location since 1993, serves six counties: Brookings, Moody, eastern Kingsbury, southern Hamlin, southern Deuel and portions of Lake. The facility is expected to meet the area's needs for at least another 30 years.

When the landfill opened, the city's recycling program was expected to extend its life for about three years, and McGrath says he still thinks that's the case today.

For more information about recycling or collection changes, contact the Brookings Regional Landfill at 693-3667 . Relevant information will also be available soon on the city's government access Mediacom Channel 9 and the city Web site, www.cityofbrookings.org.

Contact Jill Fier at jfier@brookingsregister.com.