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Waste Hauler Undertaking Recycling Pilot Program

Carl Orth/SUNCOAST

Steve Serafino, owner of Accurate Waste Systems, is continuing a recycling pilot project in southwestern Pasco County.

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: December 31, 2008

TRINITY - Recycling could become as routine as taking out the regular trash for many more Pasco residents, depending on the results of a pilot project.

Since June many area neighborhoods have been part of a test program in which waste hauling firm Accurate Waste Systems is gauging the attitudes of some 8,000 customers to recycling. As part of the program, a company flyer is encouraging its customers to become part of a "Lean Green Recycling Machine."

The experiment will continue through spring 2009 to judge the impact from the return of winter season residents, Accurate Waste Systems' owner, Steve Serafino, said.

The company has spent close to $100,000 so far on the test. As of mid-December the hauler has collected 150 tons of recyclable paper. About one out of every 20 customers participates on a monthly basis.

Before the test, the trash hauler was collecting from curbside some 2,400 blue bags of recyclables a month, Serafino said. By November, some 8,000 blue bags a month were filling the hauler's trucks.

Pasco officials only require the nine private waste haulers operating in the county to pick up blue bags with recyclables once every other week.

A county workshop in February that examined various recycling options inspired Serafino to experiment with recycling collections. He decided to designate a separate truck for recyclables collection.

Serafino went beyond the three types of recyclables the county accepts in its blue-bag program: clear, green and brown glass bottles and jars; aluminum and bimetal cans; and plastic bearing the No. 1 and No. 2 recycling symbols. He also picks up cardboard boxes, magazines and newspapers, other forms of paper and yard wastes such as tree trimmings.

The driver of the specially equipped recycling truck tosses the blue bags into a bin at the top of the vehicle and puts cardboard and other discarded paper in a bottom section.

Customers of Accurate Waste Systems now get garbage collection twice a week as usual, blue bag service twice a week, discarded paper pickup once a week and yard waste pickup once a week.

Foxwood, Heritage Pines, Heritage Springs, Trinity West and Trinity East are among the communities with the expanded service from Accurate Waste Systems.

The hauler sponsored a competition in November involving some 650 Trinity Elementary School students. Every participant received a free blue bag and literature on recycling to take home.

"They really had a gas," Serafino said.

Accurate Waste Systems has also helped recycle more than 17 tons of telephone books supporting local recycling clubs.

Company Christmas cards to customers carried a reminder to recycle.

The trash firm's recycling flyer urges its customers to ask for paper sacks at the grocery store instead of plastic bags. Customers then can reuse the grocery sacks by filling them with magazines, newspaper and other discarded paper products for curbside trash pickup.

Recycling numbers are definitely improving, but it's hard to draw any conclusions just yet, Serafino said. Customers have been throwing out a lot more paper products, but the extent of yard waste recycling isn't great yet, he said.

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

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