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Pasco To Hold Recycling Workshop

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By Carl  Orth | The Suncoast News

Published: January 11, 2008

NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - Trash is a terrible thing to waste, so county commissioners will ask the public for ideas about recycling during a workshop planned for Wednesday.

Commissioners didn't have to accept public comments at the Jan. 16 workshop, but decided this week to let residents and trash haulers speak.

"I'm very pleased the commission agreed to take public comment," Commissioner Jack Mariano said Wednesday. "I think it will be a great crowd."

Mariano is among recycling supporters who would like to copy a Polk County recycling plant here.

At the least, Mariano said, Pasco might adopt the Hernando County method of mandatory recycling.

Participation in recycling has been somewhat anemic under the current, blue-bag setup. Residents put recyclable items in blue, plastic bags for curbside pickup at least once every two weeks.

Nine trash-hauling companies set their own schedules, though, to pick up blue bags.

A pilot program last year delivered mixed results in a test pitting blue bags against trash bins for sorting recyclable trash in one neighborhood. Both methods seemed to produce about the same amount of recyclable trash, County Administrator John Gallagher has observed. He thinks the blue-bag system is working.

Mariano favors consolidating all recyclable trash pickup under one hauler. That could help cut down on garbage-truck traffic in neighborhoods and boost efficiency, Mariano argues.

Commissioner Michael Cox said one of his goals this year would be to work toward mandatory recycling.

"Our waste-to-energy plant is telling us we need to do this," Cox had said at an October meeting.

He was referring to the Pasco County Resource Recovery Facility, on Hays Road. At the plant in rural northwestern Pasco solid waste is burned to produce electricity.

Trash sometimes can swamp the resource recovery plant's current capacity, forcing Pasco to export some of its excess garbage to Osceola County.

Adding a fourth boiler at the Pasco waste-to-energy plant, however, might cost in the ball park of $150 million.

Recycling might help postpone expensive expansion at the plant and take pressure off landfills, commissioners have speculated.

The recycling workshop will start at 1:30 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 16, at the West Pasco Government Center, 7530 Little Road.

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