Officials say achieving goals will take entire community doing part

Truck traffic is constant at the Balcones Resources recycling processing plant in Northeast Austin.

Between 35 and 40 city of Austin trucks drop off recyclable material three times a week. Each day the plant processes about 400 tons of material, which is later picked up by dozens of tractor-trailers or loaded onto rail cars headed for Mexico.

Balcones Resources' business has grown twofold since the start of its 20-year contract with the city began two years ago to process recycling for residences north of the Colorado River.

Even with this growth—mainly attributed to the region's population boom, Balcones Resources CEO Kerry Getter said—it is not yet enough to meet the city's recycling goal of diverting 50 percent of material from landfills by 2015. Currently single-family residences divert about 40 percent of materials, according to the city.

"We are a society that has been conditioned in the past to just throw things away," Getter said. "We've been conditioned to believe that what we throw away has little or no value. From our perspective you really have to change that mindset."

Through education, employees at the Austin Resource Recovery department—which handles the city's trash and recycling services—believe the city can achieve that 2015 goal and eventually divert 90 percent of material from landfills and incinerators by 2040 with expanded services such as residential composting.

"Getting to 50 percent means more actively using our recycling and composting services that are available," ARR Director Bob Gedert said. "The programs have been in place, but are we effectively using [them]?"

Recycling and zero waste

On Dec. 15, 2011, City Council approved the ARR Master Plan outlining steps to achieve zero waste, defined as at least90 percent waste diversion, by 2040. As part of that plan, the Universal Recycling Ordinance will help the city achieve its zero-waste goal. Single-family homes already have curbside recycling pickup. The URO affects multifamily, commercial and industrial properties by requiring access to recycling.

"The overall goal was that every business in the city would be impacted with recycling requirements and now organic requirements as well," Gedert said. "The backbone behind that is our zero-waste goals."

The URO has two phases: requiring access to recycling for commercial and multifamily properties, and requiring composting for businesses with food-service permits. Every Oct. 1 from 2012–17 a new set of commercial and multifamily properties will begin following Phase 1 of the URO.

"An important concept is when you develop a recycling program, you're not generating more material onsite," Gedert said. "You have the same amount of material, but you're splitting it between two bins."

Phase 2 expanded recycling requirements to industrial properties. It also requires onsite collection of organic material such as food scraps at businesses with food-service permits, including grocery stores, restaurants, manufacturers and catering companies. Those businesses will be phased in each Oct. 1 from 2016–18.

Recycling resources

To help properties become compliant, Gedert said ARR has a one-year grace period from the date of a property's required recycling implementation. This allows the city to ensure affected businesses and multifamily properties are aware of the URO and work with them on a recycling plan.

The city mails letters to property owners and properties and affected by new URO deadlines, but often property owners live out of state or do not notify property tenants. City employees not only make site visits but also host community events for commercial and multifamily property owners and tenants.

"It's a process," said Lauren Hammond, ARR senior public information specialist. "It will take many years to get [the community's] behaviors to follow the zero-waste model, but we've heard that this is something the community wants."

At an Oct. 29 lunch and learn session in Northwest Austin, ARR employees spoke to more than two dozen people about the URO. Derek Tackett, facilities manager for Austin Baptist Church, said he attended to make sure the church is still in compliance.

The church spent about $20,000 on about 50 new recycling bins for its 78,000-square-foot facility off RM 2222 and met with ARR employees to help with the planning of recycling services implemented in 2013.

"We were surprised [the URO] was mandatory," Tackett said.

So far he said it has been easy for the church's staff to recycle paper and cardboard. The challenge is getting the church's 1,200 members to do their part while at the church.

"We just need to keep it in front of them and remind them," Tackett said. "A lot of people still don't know about it."

Public participation

To meet its zero-waste goals the city needs residents and businesses to use the recycling services to their full extent. The city also plans to implement a residential compost collection. A pilot program affecting 14,000 homes is already underway.

"Zero waste cannot happen if the city [only] provides services," Gedert said. "It can only happen if the public very actively participates. Part of the task is the public education."

Additionally, Getter said achieving zero waste means reusing materials, reducing overall waste and composting.

"Recycling is a significant component to that, but it's not all that's involved," he said.

Reducing waste will be vital once one of the region's landfills on Giles Road closes Nov. 1, 2015, Getter said.

"The materials we handle we view as a resource; it has value," Getter said. "The education part of what we do is to try to have people understand that you can make a difference if you put [material] in a recycling container versus a trash bin."

Travis County signed an interlocal agreement with the city of Austin in 2014 to follow the city's zero-waste goals, align programs and provide consistent education. Shaun Auckland, senior conservation coordinator for Travis County, said the county has had a waste management policy since 1998, but a program mirroring the city's URO went in effect April 2013.

From recycling toner and paper to plastics and paper clips on legal documents, Auckland said county employees have volunteered to participate in the recycling program.

"Since we've implemented a recycling [program], the departments that participate have been able to see some costs savings," she said.

In the private sector North Austin–based R2 Corp. offers asset recovery—reclaiming and reselling usable electronics and parts—and electronics recycling for everything from computers to mobile devices.

"Every part to a computer is recyclable, from the plastic to the screen to the wires to the battery," CEO Ed Garcia said.

At R2's 40,000-square-foot facility off Rutland Drive and Burnet Road, employees will either sell usable electronics to other resellers or break them down into their most basic parts of plastics, batteries, metals and more to sell to manufacturers.

Garcia said demand for electronics recycling has increased since he founded R2 in 2000. He attributes his company's growth not only to the growth of the region but also to rapidly changing technology. Most residents, he said, do not know where to take used electronics. In 2015 R2 plans to host community electronics drives throughout Austin.

"We found a lot of value in doing that and making it easier for people to recycle," Garcia said.