ST. LOUIS — City leaders are officially putting an end to alley recycling, saying contamination and rising costs have made the program unsustainable.

At times, more than half of city recycling material hasn’t actually been recycled, said Ben Jonsson, the mayor’s operations chief. The city has to pay extra for it to be taken to the landfill. Meanwhile, the task is taking time and manpower away from another chronic struggle: picking up the trash on time.

Blue recycling dumpsters will stay in place but be used as extra trash containers, Jonsson said. Residents on alley service — about 80% of the city — who want to recycle will need to take it to expanded drop-off sites.

“By making these changes,” Mayor Cara Spencer said in a statement, “we end the costly and ineffective effort that alley r

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