Does St. Pete Need Universal Curbside Recycling?

St. Petersburg took another small step Thursday toward universal curbside recycling and no longer being the only major city in Florida with out the service. 

City council voted unanimously to have city staff further explore costs and implementations of a universal program. Staff has until the end of the year to submit the report. 

"Some of this is about values," said council member Karl Nurse.

He said St. Pete values cleaning up graffiti, tearing down vacant homes for redevelopment, doing neighborhood cleanups, etc. 

"There is a long list and none of those did we think would be free but all of them we thought were important," Nurse said.    

Mike Connors, public works administrator, told council Thursday that to continue existing trash collection services and add universal curbside recycling would add to the city's budget. 

"We cannot do this at no cost," Connors said.  

The money made from selling off the recycling materials, even if trash pick ups were done only once a week, would not offset the cost of a universal curbside recycling program, Connors said. 

He said it is also hard to compare St. Pete's sanitation budget to other cities because of services provided. 

St. Pete, for example, offers brush pickup, help with rodent infestations and picks up tires/batteries at no additional cost to the taxpayers, Connors said. 

"Sanitation funds expended for sanitation purposes vary significantly from community to community," Connors said. "Services vary widely." 

Connors said going to once-a-week trash pickup is not something staff would recommend because overflow of trash, especially in alleyways. 

St. Pete's existing curbside recycling program is completely voluntary and costs users $3.75 a month. Should universal recycling eventually be implemented fees would be added to resident's waste collection fees. 

According to Connors around nine percent of the city's single family homes use the voluntary service. Results from a previous survey, Connors said, showed more than half of residents did not favor such a program if it added to their bills. 

Mayor Bill Foster said the city will look hard at how to make a program work.

"We are going to cost this thing out," Foster said. "It’s not that I am against universal curbside recycling. It comes down to costs.

"If we do discover that there is break even amount or (minimal amount), or agrees to pass along (costs) to the customers then I think it's something we can do," Foster said of paying for universal curbside recycling.  

Nurse said he is confident staff can come up with a solution. 

"We have a lot of smart people working for us and I think having them try to figure out how can we do this most efficiently, most effectively," will produce results, Nurse said.