During his Thursday press conference, Mayor D.C. Reeves delivered sobering news about Pensacola’s Summit Boulevard recycling drop-off site: nearly everything deposited there ends up in the landfill.
Contamination Conundrum
Despite the city’s voluntary curbside recycling program maintaining an impressive 7% contamination rate among its 4,000-plus participating households, the Summit Boulevard location tells a drastically different story.
- “We, at this moment, are at 85 to 90% contamination at Summit,” Reeves explained. “It means everything that’s going to Summit Boulevard gets thrown in the dump.”
The mayor traced the site’s problems back to when the city had mandatory recycling. During that period, contamination rates hit 90-100% as residents treated the location as a convenient dumping ground for everything from trash to furniture sets.
When curbside recycling was paused, contamination actually decreased as dedicated recyclers made the effort to properly sort materials at Summit. But after 4,000 households signed up for voluntary curbside service, the site’s contamination rate climbed back to previous levels.
“Oftentimes, people who don’t live in the city are looking for a place where they don’t have to pay to go take furniture and things like that,” Reeves said.
The Cost of Convenience
The Summit Boulevard site operates unmanned but with a five-person crew performing 218 scheduled cleanups, each taking three to four hours. Between Thanksgiving and Christmas, the location requires service six days a week—every day except Sunday.
- The total annual cost: approximately $260,000.
“If you do that math with 21,000 households, that is a dollar or $1.50 to 21,000 households that we’re spending on ultimately a contaminated dumping ground,” Reeves noted.
Proposed Solution
City sanitation officials are analyzing the feasibility of relocating the drop-off to the transfer station on Leonard and Palafox streets. This location offers several advantages, including existing fencing and the ability to establish controlled hours with staff supervision.
- Cost difference: the transfer station model could operate at approximately $30,000 annually—a 90% reduction from current expenses.
The mayor addressed the obvious question: why not simply add fencing and security to the existing location?
“That is airport property,” Reeves explained. “When you start getting into FAA permanence of building fences or a little walk station or things like that, it certainly does become complicated.”
- The location’s proximity to flight paths restricts the construction of permanent structures, making enhanced security measures impractical.
What Happens Next
No final decision has been made. The city continues evaluating options while acknowledging that residents have grown accustomed to the Summit Boulevard location.
- However, if the city can accomplish the same goal—providing a recycling drop-off option for residents who don’t want curbside service—at 90% less cost, the fiscal argument becomes compelling.
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