News
City Council receives report on recycling pilot
Monday, 20 February 2012 by Matthew Girard
The verdict is almost in on the City of Belton's recycling pilot program.
At a special meeting Tuesday night at the Harris Community Center, members of the Belton City Council received a report from Assistant City Manager/Finance Director Cristy Daniell on the city's pilot recycling program that began in August 2011.
Although the pilot program was originally scheduled for 90 days, the program was extended in order for Daniell to compile the necessary information for the council to make a decision.
"Cristy has done a great job of shepherding this item and bringing it to the Council," City Manager Sam Listi said. "It's new for us as a community and we are wanting to see where we go from here."
During the presentation, Daniell presented a power point presentation that detailed the responses of the 250 households selected to participate in the pilot program.
Out of the 250 households, there were 81 respondents to the survey and almost 87 percent said they supported the recycling program continuing throughout the city.
The Council also heard from individual pilot participants during the meeting.
Although the majority of comments were in support of the program, a few citizens expressed their concerns about the size of the recycle cans (due to movement and storage of the cans) and the appearance of cans being in the street.
Another concern citizens had was the inability to recycle glass and plastic bags.
"Currently, our recyclables are taken to Waco and their facility doesn't accept glass or plastic bags," Daniell said.
So far during the 27-week pilot, nearly 55,000 pounds of recyclable waste has been collected.
"The question now is do we expand the service city wide or go back to the original service or something in between," Daniell said.
Listi said the pilot is still being looked at, but the city will have a recommendation soon for the Council to decide upon.
"This is a process and we are still not to the point of making a recommendation," Listi said. "We are still looking at the costs and as soon as we get that information together, we will develop a recommendation."
For more information about Belton's recycling program, visit www.ci.belton.tx.us.
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