BRADENTON, Fla. (WFLA) – The City of Bradenton has been dealing with staffing shortages in its solid waste division for several months now, which could lead to the elimination of curbside recycling.
City officials tell 8 On Your Side 14 of the 51 positions in the solid waste department are open. An additional three people were out sick or on leave Wednesday, leaving the division 30% short of what would be considered fully-staffed.
Garbage pickup hasn’t been impacted and it remains the city’s top priority. However, recycling and yard waste pickup, which used to take place once a week, has been scheduled bi-weekly since last summer. Even with those changes, the solid waste team is still having trouble keeping up.
There’s a new proposal on the table that city officials believe could help alleviate the overburdened department. The city is considering eliminating its curbside recycling service. Instead, residents would need to bring their recyclables to one of 20 larger bins placed in centralized locations around the city.
“It will be inconvenient, but if that is what we have to do, then we will do it,” said resident Marybeth Shambarger.
City administrator Rob Perry says the proposal would not only help take stress off of other services in the solid waste department, it would also decrease the number of recyclables that end up contaminated.
“Currently, under curbside recycling, somewhere between 60 and 70% is typically contaminated and goes to the dump anyway. It is really an illusion,” said Perry. “When you have a limited resource, basically, of commercial drivers licenses and equipment, you can only do what the capacity of that resource is and we have to work smart and we have to work strategic. If we don’t, it will continue to be problematic.”
The proposal will be presented to city council at a meeting next Wednesday, March 9. A vote could take place at that time.
“If this is approved, I think we will see improvements in all of the solid waste collection because what we will have is recycled resources being reallocated to yard waste, to refuge and typical garbage, bulk item pick ups and of course a clean a recycling program that has environmental benefit and costs less,” said Perry.