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Club Urging More County Leadership On Solid Waste

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: August 2, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY -- The big response to a recent telephone directory recycling drive should send a clear signal to county officials, RESORCE Recycling Club leaders hope.

The club set a goal of collecting five tons of old phone books that otherwise might have ended up in a landfill. Instead, Pasco residents turned in 17 tons worth of old phone books.

"The club was overwhelmed with the public's response and is very appreciative," its president, Lew Corvene, said in a press release.

The unexpected tonnage demonstrates residents here "want the county to take the lead and to take new initiatives in the area of recycling," Corvene stated. "Why shouldn't Pasco County become a leader in recycling?"

The county cooperated with the phone book drive, but RESORCE hopes Pasco officials take a more active role in coming years, Corvene commented. "The size of the response pushed RESORCE and its volunteers to its limits."

Monica Dear, the founder of RESORCE, spearheaded the phone book drive.

The county indeed assisted the club with its phone book recycling drive, Pasco's recycling coordinator, Jennifer Seney, noted. The county provided a large trash bin as a central station where old phone books were brought from collection sites. The county also helped with a promotional flyer.

Kim Brown, RESORCE vice president, said county officials asked for suggestions on how to handle the phone book drive next year. RESORCE would like collection sites at public places in addition to businesses, Brown said.

Seney commended RESORCE for its drive. "It's definitely gaining momentum," she said of interest in recycling. "It's great when citizens get involved."

Before becoming coordinator, Seney herself had founded and led Pascowildlife Inc. Seney also is vice president of Keep Pasco Beautiful and chairwoman of the Environmental Lands Acquisition Selection Committee. When she accepted the county job in May, she hoped to continue her volunteer efforts as much as possible.

Seney, in the job barely three months, said her first goal has been to increase participation in the existing blue bag program for curbside pickup by trash haulers. She is working with nine trash haulers for a "consistent message" to the public "and that takes some time."

Haulers can set their own schedules for curbside pickups of recyclables in blue bags. Some critics have said this has fragmented public participation in recycling.

In a 2006 pilot program, blue bags competed against recycling storage bins in one, Central Pasco neighborhood. Mixed results from the test weren't enough to convince county officials the cost would be worth switching from bags to bins for holding recyclable materials. Many garbage trucks now aren't set up for the bins.

Corvene said Wednesday he still believes bins would boost recycling efforts. He believes the 2006 pilot program demonstrated people prefer the bins. "Personally I wouldn't mind paying for the container," although some counties and cities have furnished bins to residents.

At a county workshop in February, discussion included exclusive territories for trash haulers instead of the overlapping territories now. A mandatory blue-bag recycling program was mentioned for urban areas only. A recycling sorting facility was a possibility, although the idea at the time seemed to be losing favor.

The other option on the table might be expansion of the county's incinerator plant, the Resource Recovery Facility on Hays Road. Three boilers burn the bulk of trash, but the plant reaches capacity some days. Any excess garbage has to be exported to Osceola County.

Adding a fourth boiler could cost an estimated $150 million. A flyer from an opposition group this February, though, prompted 138 calls to the county switchboard from people who dislike incinerator expansion.

The hope is that recycling could stall the need to expand the incinerator facility.

So far nothing has come out of the February workshop initiatives while attention of county officials has been riveted on budget problems after property tax reforms.

"We really want mandatory recycling throughout the whole county," Brown, the RESORCE vice president, commented. "At first we were really skeptical" the blue-bag program can deliver results. But some recycling proponents are adopting a wait-and-see attitude.

Carl Orth can be reached at 727-815-1068 or corth@suncoastnews.com.

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