Curbside recycling is on the way!

Tonight the Pensacola City Council will be voting on a plan to bring curbside recycling to ALL of the City of Pensacola.

Since last year 375 East Hill residents have been participating in a pilot recycling program. The response has been overwhelmingly positive.

It was determined that most citizens accepted and participated in the program. Through the first 32 weeks, 59.9 tons of recyclables were recovered, for an average of 9.2 pounds per customer each week. This equals a 22% weight reduction of solids entering the landfill.

There was a survey done in December 2008, to which about half of the 375 customers responded. I've attached a presentation below which outlines the survey results.

The presentation also summarizes the potential savings of this program. If we recycle 20% of our garbage waste stream, we can reduce our landfill waste by 4,640 tons and realize a cost savings of $165,000 based on current tipping fees. This savings assumes $0 tipping fee on recyclables. We can realize the savings of over $47,000 in our Transload Contract with Allied Waste. However, these savings might be slightly offset by the increase of city collection trucks having to direct haul to the recyclable process facility.

The presentation also details the financial impact to the City in terms of initial expense as well as the proposed changes to the collection schedules.

Presentation Recycling

If approved by Council, City staff has a target date to start city-wide curbside recycling beginning June 15, 2009.

I am very excited about this historic time in our community when we have finally implemented city-wide recycling. The time for this change is long overdue. In our efforts to increase economic growth and attract new companies to our community, I think this is an important step in showing our community is making a step in the right direction for a progressive green community.

Although glass and Styrofoam will not be collected curbside, we will still be able to drop off glass recyclables at the current drop off sites around the city. City staff is also looking into the possibility of having drop off sites for Styrofoam products.

One of my campaign promises was to implement city-wide recycling and with this vote it will happen. I would like to thank City Staff and my fellow City Council members for working to achieve this goal. I sincerely appreciate all those who have e-mailed and called me to express their support for city-wide curbside recycling. I look forward to receiving my own brown can.