Since the bankruptcy of West Florida Recycling, citizens in Santa Rosa County want to know when their bottles, cans, and paper products will be recycled again. During Monday’s Santa Rosa County commission meeting, Hunter Walker, county administrator, said, “Recyclable material has still been collected curbside primarily in the two franchise areas in the south part of the county, but, quite frankly, that has been placed in the landfill.” Walker said the county has interest from three firms regarding transporting and processing those recyclables: Waste Pro, Waste Management, and Emerald Coast Utilities Authority (ECUA).
According to Walker, Waste Pro ultimately declined to bid on handling the county’s recycling and Waste Management’s proposal cost too much. “Waste Management submitted an alternate proposal that was extremely pricey. They would essentially charge us per pull,” he said. The total cost for service by Waste Management, according to cost comparison material provided by the county, would be almost $1.1 million.
ECUA, Walker said, had two options for the county. “They would use our central landfill as their transfer station and send the material, process the material, and ultimately take it to Montgomery and there would be no cost for that.” Walker said the second option involved opening the previously closed sites to be serviced by ECUA. “They made a proposal to do that at $200,000 a year.” Walker finished his report saying, “I think this will be a short term proposal. Overall, there’s going to have to be a regional approach taken or I think we’ll have to continue to look at standing up our recycling site again.”
Commissioners Lane Lynchard, Bob Cole, and Don Salter all spoke in approval of further discussions with ECUA. Lynchard said, “I think this is a good solution to our short term problem right now. It doesn’t cost the county anything and assures our residents what they put in the recycling bin is being recycled and not land filled.” Cole, who said he’s been chairman of the Bay Area Resource Council for five years, said, “Even if we look at the $200,000 [option] annually that’s still a significant savings over what we had when we ran our own program.”
Salter said, “Once we get into franchising the north end of the county, a lot of the recycling issues will go away.”
While the commissioners recognized a plan involving ECUA as short term, Melvin offered the only voice of dissent of working with them. He said, “I’m very reluctant to enter into an agreement with ECUA, much less a two-year agreement. I’m not impressed with their record. All I know about them is what I read in the newspaper and I’m not comfortable with it. That’s the bottom line with me. If we have to do it short term, I would say one year is the absolute maximum. I know ECUA is transporting to Montgomery but my understanding is that that’s costing them; they’re incurring heavy losses. They’re doing that because they’re contractually obligated, not because it’s economically feasible.” Melvin also said part of West Florida Recycling’s problem was hindering actions on ECUA’s part.
Thursday, the commissioners made a decision. Melvin said he was not comfortable with a 2-year agreement with ECUA. “I’m not sure these folks are the answer to our problem,” he said. Lynchard said 2 years would allow room to maneuver and a single year agreement would mean putting out another Request for Proposal (RFP) in 6 months. Melvin came up with a compromise, a 90-day opt-out if, he said, the county finds a better resolution to the problem a year and a half out. Walker agreed saying ECUA may themselves seek an opt-out ability. Lynchard moved to enter into the proposed agreement for a period of two years provided SRC has the ability to terminate the contract with a 90-day notice, which passed without objection. What was agreed upon was the first, the free option. Cole later said the county may look into reopening the sites and franchising in the north end would allow home pick-up. Cole said the deal is not in stone yet, but the motion allows SRC staff to hammer one out with ECUA by the caveats agreed upon Thursday.
This article originally appeared on Santa Rosa Press Gazette: ECUA recycling plan is a go