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County Weighs Mandatory Recycling Options
Carl Orth/SUNCOAST NEWS
RECYCLING OPTIONS were outlined by Bruce Kennedy, Pasco County's utilities chief, during today's county workshop.
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Published: January 16, 2008
NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. - Can recycling turn trash into gold?
No, county officials said at a public workshop today. But the county should boost its recycling efforts as one step in the right direction since the county often has too much trash to burn at the Pasco County Resource Recovery Facility and must export the excess garbage.
County officials are looking for ways to forestall the need to expand the resource recovery facility, at a price tag in the neighborhood of $150 million.
Residents might expect to pay more to their private waste haulers if the county moves toward a mandatory recycling program.
"It certainly isn't without cost," said Bruce Kennedy, assistant county administrator for utilities services.
Residents might see an extra $2 to $4 tacked onto monthly bills solid waste bills.
As an alternative, the county could decide to implement an annual recycling fee, similar to the solid waste assessment the county levies to help pay for the resource recovery facility, which burns trash to generate electricity.
The county might throw out its voluntary, blue bag recycling program first developed in 1988. The blue bag program only accepts for recycling bimetal cans, glass containers and plastic containers bearing the No. 1 and No. 2 recycling symbols.
In its place might be a mandatory, "single-stream" recycling program, as described today by Kennedy.
The single-stream option would allow residents to mix all types of recyclable trash in a single container to be sorted out later at a plant with cutting-edge technology.
The closest plant is a Waste Management facility in Orlando, which would necessitate a transfer station here, Kennedy said.
The county might have to add staff as well if it switched to mandatory recycling, Kennedy speculated.
Other mandatory recycling options might include a two-bin system, in which residents do some of the preliminary sorting of recyclable materials.
But the county might not stop at an overhaul of its recycling program.
County officials have contemplated scrapping the overlapping territories of the nine private trash haulers serving the county now.
The county issues nonexclusive licenses under the current system. That results in four garbage collectors serving the Gulf Harbors area, one of its residents, Pat Gorecki, pointed out.
Kennedy helped unveil one proposal for splitting the county into four, exclusive franchise areas. Trash haulers complained today that some of the nine existing firms might be driven out of business if exclusive franchise areas were created.
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