Citrus County officials are still unsure whether universal trash pick up is on the horizon, but they’re banking on one thing:
Curbside recycling service will be part of it.
The county commission last week limited public access to the final remaining free recycling convenience center when commissioners said the recycling bins at the county landfill will be available only during business hours — 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturdays.
Commissioners say they know recycling is popular, but the isolated recycling bins have become a target for illegal dumping.
Commissioner Scott Carnahan has said that curbside recycling pickup will likely be a part of the universal trash disposal program the county is considering. Carnahan did not return calls for comment.
The county in February solicited bids for a universal trash collection program that includes curbside recycling pickup, as the cities of Crystal River and Inverness now offer. The bids are expected back this fall.
According to documents the county provided the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, however, Citrus is banking on curbside recycling to help the county reach the state-mandated 70% recycling goal.
“Making curbside recycling available to all Citrus citizens will result in a substantial increase in the county’s recycling rate,” the report states.
And, even with county recycling now limited only to business hours at the landfill, the county’s website has not been updated.
“We also operate a single-stream recycling program at nine neighborhood drop-off locations. Volunteer organizations monitor and maintain the sites and earn revenue from the sale of the materials,” it incorrectly states. “Our goal is to extend the life of the landfill by providing long term sustainable recycling, diversion and waste reduction services to the citizens of Citrus County in an environmentally sound manner.”
Oliver in 2015: 'Get rid of' county recycling centers
Recycling has a history in Citrus County and in Florida.
In the late 1980s and 1990s, the state placed a recycling target of 30% and provided grants to the county for curbside recycling pick. The county provided that grant-funded service to unincorporated Inverness, Crystal River, Beverly Hills and Riverhaven.
The grant program ended and that led to the county opening community recycling centers in the early 2000s. Clusters of recycling bins were scattered throughout the county by arrangement with community or neighborhood associations.
Selling recyclables was a money maker for the contract company hauling the recycling material, and community organizations that shared in the profits.
By around 2015, though, those profits began to dwindle and then disappear altogether due to import tariffs in China, the world’s largest user of recycled materials.
And with that, the county began shuttering the community recycling centers. Partially for cost reasons, but more because officials said the recycling bins were becoming cluttered with garbage and junk, which “contaminates” the recycling materials.
County Administrator Randy Oliver estimated about half the materials collected in the bins cannot be recycled.
“I’d like to get rid of those convenience centers,” he said in 2015.