Auburndale considers scrapping curbside recycling. Fee for trash pickup would still rise

Auburndale is poised to end the curbside recycling service it has offered residents since 2010.

At its regular meeting on Thursday at 7 p.m., the City Commission will consider a staff recommendation to reject a proposed contract from Advanced Disposal, the company that handles its curbside recycling collection. Instead, residents would need to take items to the city’s recycling center.

The change would yield a 7.5% increase in the fee for combined collection services, substantially less than residents would pay if Auburndale entered a new contract with Advanced Disposal for recycling, city staff said in an analysis for the meeting agenda. The current contract expires on Sept. 30.

The City Commission approved the proposed ordinance on a first reading. The panel will hold a final vote at Thursday’s meeting.

John Dickson, Auburndale’s director of public works, said that he believes Auburndale would be the first city in the area to discontinue curbside recycling collection. Dickson said the proposed change reflects the reality that recycling programs for cities no longer make sense financially.

When Auburndale started offering curbside recycling collection in 2010, the rate was $2.28 per household, Dickson said. Under the proposal for a new contract with Advanced Disposal, a subsidiary of Waste Management, residents would pay $9.75 a month for recycling pickup.

“So what we're doing is just trying to get the best rate for the customer,” Dickson said.

Auburndale handles its own curbside trash collection, and that would not change under the recommendation from city staff.

Dickson offered a history on changes in the recycling industry, which have caused other cities and counties to reconsider the services they offer. For decades, China bought much of the material gathered for recycling in the United States, offering prices that made the collection financially viable.

The market changed in 2017, when China announced that it would significantly restrict the purchase of waste material from other countries. The following year, global exports of recyclable plastic to China declined by 99%, according to the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank.

Glass and some plastics, including soda and water bottles, no longer have value and can reduce the value of a load when mixed with other material. Polk County altered its policies in 2017, urging residents not to place glass and those plastics in their recycling bins.

The county instead encourages customers to recycle cardboard, plastic milk jugs and paper, which have more value for recycling companies, as The Ledger reported at the time.

Lakeland still accepts glass and lists no restrictions on the plastic material it collects.

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The cost of recycling in Auburndale rose to $4.55 per customer, and the city pays a “tipping fee,” an amount a facility charges to accept the material. The city currently pays tipping fees of $36.50 a ton for trash and $145 a ton for material to be recycled, Dickson said.

Auburndale now charges residents $20.20 monthly for curbside collection — $15.65 for trash pickup and $4.55 for recycling.

The city’s staff presented the City Commission with three options:

• Approve a proposed one-year contract with Waste Management for curbside recycling collection, bringing the combined monthly fee to $25.40, an increase of 25.7%.

• Have the city take over recycling collection, putting the combined monthly fee at $30.09, an increase of 48.9%.

• Discontinuing curbside recycling collection, for a combined monthly fee of $21.72, an increase of 7.5%.

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Dickson said the total fee would rise in that last scenario because Auburndale would increase staffing and add a garbage truck to its fleet. The city would collect material placed in recycling bins, but that material would go into the general collection destined for a landfill, increasing the overall volume collected, he said.

Residents would be able to deliver their recyclable items to the city’s central recycling collection, located adjacent to the Public Works facility at 915 Charles Ave. The facility accepts cardboard, plastics and metal.

As of Friday, Dickson said his staff had received no phone calls from residents concerned about the proposed elimination of curbside recycling pickup. If the City Commission approves the change, Auburndale will notify residents through its utility billing system and social media, he said.

“Customers’ (collection) days won't change,” Dickson said. “They should see no change in service — just that anything that is picked up curbside will go to the landfill and not recycle.”

Gary White can be reached at gary.white@theledger.com or 863-802-7518. Follow on X @garywhite13.

This article originally appeared on The Ledger: Auburndale poised to end curbside recycling. Trash fee would still rise