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Edward Vasques does not recycle as regularly here in St. Joseph as he did when he lived in Suwanne, Ga. At his former residence, the city had curbside recycling pickup.

Seven months ago, Edward Vasques led a green lifestyle.

In his previous home in Suwanee, Ga., located about 40 miles northeast of Atlanta, the St. Joseph resident said curbside recycling pickup was part of the city’s trash service.

“Just about every house would have a trash can and a recycling bin out in front of it,” he said. “... As far as my home life, when I was in Atlanta, I always did.”

These days, Mr. Vasques finds it difficult to do the saving, sorting and hauling of recyclable materials himself, and said he often doesn’t get it done at all.

“Convenience and time-saving is a huge factor in motivating people to either recycle or not,” he said.

Bruce Woody, St. Joseph’s director of public works and transportation, said curbside recycling doesn’t exist in St. Joseph because about 18 private haulers are responsible for trash collection. The department drafted an initiative to franchise that collection — which Mr. Woody said might have opened the door to a curbside recycling program, though at the cost of many haulers’ jobs — but citizens voted it down in 2004.

The city’s drop-off recycling center brought in almost 900,000 pounds of recycling last year, which is down 1.3 million pounds from 10 years ago. Even though the total volume has declined, Mr. Woody said the city still spends about $160,000 a year on the facility and only makes about $21,000 back, leaving no room to start up curbside collection.

“Recycling, in order for it to work, there has to be a lot of people participating, and it still has to be underwritten from some source,” he said. “... Most places that have curbside do it because they have a franchise collection of some sort, that’s the way they fund it.”

Columbia, Mo., has been providing curbside recycling pickup through the city’s residential trash service since the 1980s, and in 2007 alone processed 8,800 tons of material. That number is only about 2,000 tons less than the total amount of material that has gone through St. Joseph’s center in the past 12 years.

Layli Terrill, waste minimization supervisor, said about 30 percent of Columbia households recycle.

“It has steadily increased every year,” she said.

Ms. Terrill said a city ordinance mandates that the city collect all residential trash, and customers are provided with blue bags to set out all their recycling except paper materials. A monthly fee of $2.82 is added to residential trash bills to cover the cost of recycling.

“We are projected to make money this year,” Ms. Terrill said. “... It will be the first time since our material recovery facility opened.”

Andrea Morrow, of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources, said whether or not cities have curbside recycling is often decided by citizens.

“It all depends. You’ll see some big cities that don’t, and you’ll see some little cities that do,” Ms. Morrow said.

Curbside recycling is the most convenient way for people to recycle, and Ms. Morrow said she thinks it will become more popular in the future.

“The more convenient you make recycling for people, the more likely they are to do it,” she said.

Clarification: A story on Page A1 of Thursday’s News-Press, entitled “Lack of curbside pickup hinders recycling,” needs clarification. St. Joseph does not have citywide, franchised recycling. A private company, stjoegreen, does offer that service.