Students living off campus may have to take the initiative to ensure that their property managers offer recycling options.

Despite recent confusion regarding Evanston’s recycling policy for apartment buildings, Vincent Jones, an assistant to the city manager, said apartments with more than four units are not required by law to offer recycling. Those buildings are considered businesses that must provide their own sanitation, Jones said.

When Ben Rottman was disappointed to find that his new apartment did not offer recycling, he contacted various aldermen and his property manager to see how residents in his apartment could recycle.

“The company we contract for garbage provides it,” said Rottman, a Weinberg junior who lives on the 700 block of Clark Street. “My property manager didn’t even know we could recycle, but I figured it out on my own, essentially.”

Jones said the city will explore options for recycling in buildings with fewer than four units in the next few weeks. The city’s sanitation department provides services for these buildings and by law must offer recycling to them.

“They’re not required to recycle, but the city is looking at right now seeing how we can improve our recycling options for residents who happen to live in units with five or more units,” Jones said.

Residents may drop off their recyclables at the Evanston Recycling Center, 2222 Oakton St., on Friday from noon to 7 p.m. and on Saturday and Sunday from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Rottman suggested that students contact their property managers to see if the unit’s garbage provider offers recycling. If not, students should urge their landlords to switch to another sanitation provider that does offer recycling, he said.

But other students living in apartments haven’t been so successful as Rottman.

Tiffany Grobelski, who lives on the 1600 block of Ridge Avenue, said she contacted her property management company, Parliament Enterprises Ltd., on three separate occasions with no response.

“I keep getting diverted and I haven’t gotten any answers about it,” said Grobelski, a Weinberg junior and co-chairwoman of the campus group Students for Ecological and Environmental Development. “This is very frustrating because the desire to recycle is there, and it’s potentially really easy to provide some kind of recycling receptacle, but it’s just not there.”

Sheldon Kantoff, the property manager for Grobelski’s complex, had told The Daily last month that his company provides recycling bins at all of its buildings, but Grobelski said she found no such such recycling bins or dumpsters.

Kantoff was not available for comment.

At least local one property management company with a complex of five or more units will now look into the possibility of offering recycling.

Cameel Halim, president of Wilmette Realty, said his company likely will offer recycling at two apartment buildings in the next few weeks to gauge interest and participation of residents. Wilmette is also soliciting quotes from different sanitation and recycling companies, Halim said.

“The cost is minimal,” he said. “I think we want to give it a try and see.”

Recycling actually might cost property management companies less than simply providing garbage pick up.

Most garbage fees are calculated based on the weight of the trash, said Tracy Hubbard, executive coordinator of Keep Evanston Beautiful, a nonprofit environmental organization. Recycling usually is charged at a flat rate, which means landlords potentially could save money by shifting the weight of heavy objects, such as bottles, to the recycling bin.

Grobelski urged students intent on recycling in their apartments to press on with their property managers.

“I just plan on being really annoying until they listen to me,” she said. “Keep pressuring and keep asking.”

Reach Yuxing Zheng at [email protected].