Pensacola recycling program can pickup behind schedule - Pensacola News Journal
Pensacola recycling program can pickup behind schedule
Pensacola still working to collect more than 21,000 recycling cans
Jim Little
Pensacola residents who still have a Pensacola recycling can are being urged to leave their cans at the curb so the city can collect them.
The city is working to collect more than 21,000 recycling cans now that the city's curbside recycling program is over.
The city officially ended its curbside recycling program as of Oct. 1, and the city's plan was to pick up all recycling cans during the last recycling pick-up in September.
"In retrospect, picking up 21,000 cans in five days might have been a little overzealous," Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said Tuesday.
Reeves said the city got behind on its plan to pick up all of the cans last week but is working through the backlog.
"We've brought on additional staff and rented some trucks," Reeves said. "We're going as quickly as we can. As you can imagine, picking up 21,000 recycling cans is a heavy lift."
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Reeves said that they expect to have reached 10,000 cans picked up by the end of Tuesday.
For now, the city will keep the cans in storage until a decision has been made on a new curbside recycling program. The city is seeking quotes from Emerald Coast Utilities Authority and Waste Management to run a third-party pick-up program.
Reeves said the cans can be used for residents who sign up for the recycling program, and if there is still a significant amount left over, they may be sold to help subsidize the recycling program.
Reeves said the city is still looking at Nov. 1 as a potential date to open a staffed recycling drop-off location at the sanitation transfer station on West Leonard Street.
In the meantime, the city asks residents to leave their recycling cans at the curb.
"Just be patient with us and know that we're on it," Reeves said.