Karl Nurse proposes recycling compromise

ST. PETERSBURG--City Council member Karl Nurse has come up with a compromise to the city's ongoing dispute with the county over curbside recycling.

Here is the letter Nurse sent to county and city officials today:

The Honorable Robert Stewart
Chair, Pinellas County Commission

Dear Commissioner Stewart,

As a long time advocate of increased recycling in Pinellas County, I have watched with dismay to see poor communication between the County and the City of St. Petersburg on the means to increase countywide recycling. I am in full support of the goals of increased recycling and a sharp reduction in the amount of waste that is buried in the landfill. With this in mind, I would like to propose a series of steps that the City of St. Petersburg could take to achieve these goals. It is important that we focus on the goals of increased recycling and reduction of waste to incinerator and landfill. Let us not get tripped up by the precise method of achieving our common goals.

First, the City can help reduce the peak garbage tonnage by implementing a curbside yard waste pickup program. Yard waste often is the largest portion of homeowners waste and is the major cause of the peak garbage tonnage. This program could be timed so as to have increased frequencies during the spring surge of garbage generation. It would logically be less often in the fall and winter when
much less yard waste is generated.

Second, the City can lower the fees and increase its marketing of mulch delivery to homeowners so as to have more of the mulch used on our soils and lower the trucking costs for disposal. The County recycling funds should help subsidize this expansion. This will help divert some of the waste that otherwise would end up in the incinerator or the landfill. 

Third, the City can implement a monthly curbside recycling program to pick up the newspapers, glass, plastic and aluminum that would be part of the county program. Chattanooga, Tenn., has used a monthly system with good results. Since the paper, glass, etc., do not go bad with time, this has proven to be a way to pick up a good amount of recyclable materials while minimizing the carbon footprint of the garbage trucks. 

Fourth, the City can open up the criteria to allow more customers to choose once-a-week pickup. This would be during the second pickup of the week, which is the pickup that has only about 40% of the volume. By eliminating some Monday or Tuesday pickups, it will allow the city to balance its workload more, thus allowing customers a choice to save money if they divert sufficient waste to curbside yard pickup or curbside recyclables pickup. 

Collectively, these actions can reduce the household waste to the incinerator by as much as 60%, convert a considerable amount of material to be recycled, minimize the increase in the pollution caused by additional garbage, allow citizens to save money and meet the county’s goal of extending the life of the county landfill. I believe this meets the county goal for recycling and should qualify for the county funds.

Sincerely,

Karl Nurse
City Council, Dist. # 6

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Comments

[Dismayed]

There has been plenty of communication, including several St. Pete Times articles.

Some St. Pete officials simply don't want to implement regular curbside recycling - even on the County's tab.

http://www.vote4norm.com/New%20Pages/ToyTown.htm

If the county had not offered to pay for all costs associated with curbside recycling, this compromise would make sense. It is a smart, reasonable, logical ompromise. But again, there would be no cost to city residents. Sooo, why is a compromise even needed?

What's next... a letter to the Sports Authority suggesting we hold the Super Bowl in Tampa this year?

Here's a thought: why don't we try to get a baseball team in St. Pete? Start writing that letter!

That's great Karl, except you left out the part about the free curbside recycling that the County is offering. That's kind of a major point isn't it?

[Charlie]

Wow, an elected official who is actually trying to work the problem, seek solutions, communicate and achieve common goals. And they said that species was extinct. Keep it up Karl, maybe it will be contagious.

[The Counter]

Holy Crap!

A nice piece on Karl Nurse posted for three hours and not one DINO mention.

The Helmites are slipping.

Holy Crap!

A nice piece on Karl Nurse posted for three hours and not one Helm stalker blaming him for 9/11...

... never mind ...

I think Karl is hot!

[The Counter]

FIRST!

I thought Karl was hot before you!

[Tom]

Why not copy a couple of the other commissioners that are on their way out?

SECOND...

You seem to harbor a bit of hot feeling for Helm too. Oh, you can hide it under a blanket of attacks... but I think you're really hot for him!

Seems the city is seeking cash from the county not recycling.

Nice try.

[Everett]

This whole isue is the fault of a few officials in St Petersburg. Yet their argument is faulty. Their main point is that the recycling trucks would add more pollution negating the benefit.

The math however is faulty. Mike Connors, the city's internal services administrator states the trucks would use 25,000 gallons of fuel. He doesn't say if thats monthly or yearly but I'll assume monthly.

However I ALWAYS see 4-5 people when I drop off. I am their no more than 10 minutes, so thats 24-30 people an hour. Or to lowball it, 240 people per day per site. 5 sites that accept everything and 10 that don't accept cardboard or yard waste. We'll give them 200 people per day as my 4-5 figure doesn't count the people in the yard waste are so I think thats low. I only count those parked by me recycling.

Thats 1200 people per day the 5 main sites and another 2000 per day at the others. So 3200 total perday over 7 days is 22400 per week! If each person uses half a gallon thats 11200 gallons of fuel per week or 44,800 gallons a month!

How is the city saving 25,000 gallons better for our air than us using 44,800?

Can't Mr. Conners do basic math?

Also I think the sites are used much much more. I purposely low balled my numbers to show it doesn't add up.

The figure is likely MUCH higher. Like Mike Conners.

[TRUE BLUE]

All the kings men and all the kings horses and all of Karl's cheap publicity stunts won't help him next year when he has to face the voters of his district.

[Dr_Dug]

Rick Baker has an agenda....He'll try to stop it. Good luck