Ecology Action of Texas closed its downtown drop-off recycling center Sept. 13 after nearly two decades of operation. Despite a five-year search for a new Central Austin recycling drop-off spot, Ecology Action decided this spring to close the center after the property was sold and a city reimbursement contract expired. Executive Director Alden Larrick said fewer recyclables were dropped off in recent years as the city transitions to curbside pickup, but Ecology Action helped fill a void by taking many materials from residents and businesses that the city did not accept. “That is why I think a drop-off recycling center is still a necessity,” Larrick said. “If we lose that, we lose that opportunity.” The closure also creates a temporary void for Austinites who rely solely on drop-off recycling centers. “Just be patient and hope the city is able to handle [recycling drop-off duties] because that’s all we have now,” Larrick said. [polldaddy poll=9092279] Austin Resource Recovery Department Director Bob Gedert said the city is combining the Resource Recovery Center and Household Hazardous Waste Facility in Southeast Austin to create the Recycle & Reuse Drop-off Center, which opens with a grand opening celebration from 10 a.m. until noon Oct. 17. The facility will expand what recyclables it accepts, he said, but it is less centrally located than Ecology Action’s former drop-off site. “It’s a bit more remote,” Gedert said. “We’re not totally answering that issue.” However, the city’s universal recycling ordinance—passed in 2011—enables more office users and apartment dwellers to recycle on-site because of incremental regulations, which go into effect every Oct. 1 until 2017. This year, all apartments with at least 10 units and office buildings bigger than 25,000 square feet must comply. Currently about 40 percent of all waste is recycled instead of dumped into landfills, he said, well below the city’s end-of-year goal of 50 percent. Nonetheless, Gedert said he is confident the city can still recycle 75 percent of all waste by 2020. Such a boost in recycling participation occurred when the city quadrupled the size of curbside recycling containers, he said. “What we’re finding today is that we plateaued a bit, so we’re looking for a similar stimulus, if you will, to capture more recyclables,” Gedert said.

Seeking solutions

Approximately 1,400 residents responded to an Austin Resource Recovery request for ideas that could inspire more citywide recycling. Top among the recommendations, Gedert said, was the desire for weekly curbside recycling pickup. More recycling trucks would be needed to expand existing every-other-week service, he said, a process he said could take until late 2017 or early 2018. Efforts to promote recycling may prove financially beneficial in the long term.[/caption] “A lot of people say they don’t remember what week [curbside recycling occurs],” he said. “I think we’re missing some recyclables just by the confusion.” Longer term, the department’s master plan calls for four city-owned drop-off recycling sites in each corner of Austin, with a fifth facility potentially located near The University of Texas campus, he said, but that plan is at least five years away. More immediately, money is set aside this fiscal year for more downtown recycling containers to expand upon a program started earlier this year.

Overcoming adversity

Educational awareness campaigns have not always proven effective at apartment complexes, where some property managers and landlords are struggling to have tenants come into compliance. “Often we have to have our trash company dump our recycling as garbage because it’s so contaminated,” said Lindsay Scogin, CSA Management Inc. property supervisor for 15 Austin properties. Scogin invited city employees to speak with tenants about acceptable recycling practices, but compliance continues to be an issue—especially at larger complexes in lower-income areas, she said. She also estimates a 40 percent cost increase in waste-removal services. Bill Roland, who manages about 40 residential and commercial properties for Granite Properties of Texas, said the cost of recycling is not as steep—about $200 extra per month—but is still a factor. “It’s an extra cost no matter what the city tries to sell you,” Roland said. “They say there is less trash and therefore it’s going to balance out, but it’s not true.” Despite the added price tag that comes with recycling, Roland, a former Austin Apartment Association board president, said most Austin property managers are coming around to recycling regulations. “When this started in the 1990s, nobody wanted to recycle—it just wasn’t the culture,” he said. “Now people are asking for it.”

Rethinking recycling

Recycling collection continues to be the focus for the city and its waste management partners, but broader efforts are also underway to boost conservation. Five years ago, Ecology Action purchased Circle Acres, a 9.7-acre nature preserve in Southeast Austin where the organization will continue operating. The former landfill site will not accept recyclables, Larrick said. Ecology Action will still subcontract on a city program called the Austin Materials Marketplace, a business-to-business waste materials exchange program that allows the 105 participating companies and organizations to trade difficult-to-recycle items. “We need to get more businesses involved, find out what’s out there and then figure out how to repurpose those materials,” she said. Larrick said the city should also work to increase its composting efforts, which for the past 2 1/2 years have been limited to a five-area pilot program. The compost program, which has so far garnered 62 percent participation, could expand by fiscal year 2016-17, Gedert said. The city will continue ensuring compliance on other recycling regulations, which next year expand to include food waste from restaurants and grocers. “We’re transitioning closer and closer to a harsher enforcement policy,” Gedert said. “We want voluntary compliance, but where that doesn’t happen we are ready for enforcement.”