Press Release: Clearwater Municipal Recycling Program Update

Release to News Media, Jan. 12, 2023

Clearwater, Fla. -- In October 2022, the city was made aware of community discussions happening on social platform Nextdoor about the city's recycling processing. The city manager's office inquired about the complaints, and the response from the city's Solid Waste department at that time was an assurance that recyclables were properly being processed.

Subsequently, in November 2022 the city received a letter from our recycling processor, Waste Management, stating that they would no longer be accepting our recyclables, but would be open to having future discussions about renegotiating processing prices.

Through continuing investigation, administration discovered that as of June 2022 none of our recyclables were taken to Waste Management for processing. They were either taken to the Pinellas County Solid Waste Disposal Complex. Reasons provided by the department for this June process change vary from staffing issues to equipment failure. At no time was city administration briefed on the situation or brought in to troubleshoot possible solutions nor was the public made aware of this change. This is unacceptable and changes have been made in departmental administration.

"The city of Clearwater has professed to be stewards of the environment. We have adopted Greenprint 2.0 and have hired an energy consultant to help us reduce our energy usage in city buildings," said Interim City Manager Jennifer Poirrier. "Our actions as stewards of the public's money spent on our recycling program has not matched what we said we stand for and that is not acceptable. We have also not been open and transparent with our residents."

As of this week, we are taking recyclables to Waste Management for processing daily as a short-term solution. We are also in the process of working on a more affordable and sustainable long-term solution. The current issues and challenges facing our country's municipal recycling programs are well documented. Countless articles and studies have been done on the topic.

"Due to the current challenges facing the domestic municipal recycling programs, residents can make the most impact by reducing their waste and decreasing contamination in the recycling stream," said Poirrier. "The mantra reduce, reuse, and recycle' has recycle' listed last for a reason. The most impact we can have is by reducing our waste."

Earlier this week, the Florida Recycling Partnership Foundation and the University of Florida announced the results of a study examining the environmental and business impacts of discontinued municipal recycling systems in Florida. They also hosted a webinar today where the results of the study were presented. More information can be found at www.flrecycling.org.

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