No curbside recycling says St. Pete mayor -- not even if it's free

Pinellas County has a deal for St. Petersburg: We'll reduce carbon emissions, extend the life of the landfill and provide curbside recycling to every household, all at no extra cost to taxpayers.

And St. Petersburg Mayor Rick Baker still wants no part of it, reports today's St. Petersburg Times. Did we mention that  Baker chairs the Century Commission for a Sustainable Florida, the one that listed climate change as one of the state's top challenges?

The county's ongoing effort to bring free curbside recycling to every residence in Pinellas has been met with firm opposition from Baker, who questions the financial and environmental benefits of the initiative, notes our colleague Christina Silva. So a lot of St. Petersburg's recyclable material winds up going to the incinerator instead.

One argument city officials make: Curbside recycling translates to more fuel-hungry trucks on the road. City internal services administrator Mike Connors estimates curbside collection would require the trucks to burn an extra 25,000 gallons of fuel, producing 20 tons of engine exhaust in St. Petersburg alone. So the city prefers that residents use any of the dozens of dropoff recycling centers across the county, which requires them to use their own vehicles to get there.

Hogwash, say county officials.The county estimates 4.8-million gallons of gas would be saved if 440 tons of recyclable material were picked up curbside instead of at collection centers. Greenhouse gas emissions would be reduced by 20,900 metric tons, the equivalent of removing 16,600 passenger cars from the road.

Interim County Administrator Fred Marquis asked whether Connors had any evidence to support his claim that forcing St. Petersburg residents to do their own dropoff recycling somehow uses less fuel than sending out trucks to pick up recycling materials at the curbside.

"I'm not able to prove that," Connors conceded, then put this twist on his argument: "But I'm not so sure anyone can disprove that."

UPDATE: On Sept. 24, Mayor Baker announced he had changed his mind. For details click here.

[Associated Press photo]

--Craig Pittman, Times Staff Writer

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Comments

[Frank]

Isn't burning the garbage at the incinerator recycling??

It's providing a second use, or in some cases a third or fourth use as in post-consumer recycled paper, by providing electricity.

In fact, garbage incineration is considered renewable under Florida's RPS.

[Houston]

Let's go a nickle deposit per beverage container(glass, plastic, aluminum). Give the poor an alternative income and waste no petroleum.

[Houston]

Seriously folks...the highways would be cleaner (no labor cost) and the domestic shopping cart industry should thrive. It would reduce the amount of pick-ups for non-beverage containers required per address thus reducing labor,as well as fuel and maintenance the vehicles. Plastic recycling greatly lessens the amount of petroleum used in the manufacture of containers and other goods.