Recycling in Escambia County is temporarily on hold after Hurricane Sally substantially damaged the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority Materials Recycling Facility at Perdido Landfill.

The facility sustained about $800,000 in damage to the structure and equipment. A building contractor is already on site, has completed inspections and is ready to begin rehabilitation work.

The best estimate right now is that the facility will be in service and ECUA recycling will return at the end of October.

“I want to assure our customers that ECUA is 150% committed to our program, and we are going to work to have the facility back up and running as safely and quickly as possible,” ECUA Public Information Officer Nathalie Bowers said Tuesday afternoon.

Bowers encourage residents to try to stay in the habit of recycling, if possible, by storing clean recyclables in their cans until service resumes.

ECUA also provided recycling service to several other municipalities using the facility, including Pensacola and Atmore, also putting those recycling program on hold.

The ECUA MRF processed 49,197 tons of recyclables during fiscal year 2019.