Austin Expands Recycling Program
In hopes of increasing recycling rates and revenue, the city of Austin, Texas, kicked off a single-stream recycling program earlier this month. This type of program allows more materials to be accepted and also has a history of increasing resident participation.
In addition to plastics number one through seven and boxboard (cereal boxes and similar packaging). Plastic bags and Styrofoam are not accepted.
City officials hope to reduce the city’s carbon footprint by 64 percent. They are also scouting out a location for a regional recycling center, which would decrease the cost and environmental impact of transportation. A site will be decided upon in the next few years, officials said.
Are there items not accepted in your curbside program? Use Earth911 to find a location to recycle your plastic bags or other items.
As of June 17th 2011 we have upgraded our comment system to use Facebook comments. The below comments are closed and are listed for historical purposes.
Lisa Hardeman
posted on November 2nd, 2008 at 7:10 pm
Hi,
We live in Austin in the ETJ, extra territorial jurisdiction, which means we get some city services and some county services. Well, the city of Austin doesn’t provide us with ANY recycling and our trash pick up is with Waste Management, which does not offer any recycling. I’ve called the city twice about getting single-stream recycling here, but they won’t offer it. We live about 2 miles from the 360, Mopac, 183 juncture in NW Austin so we are very close. The official city limit is 1 mile away, and our address reads Austin. I’m frustrated about not getting any recycling! HELP!
Thanks,
Lisa
Laurence Becker
posted on November 5th, 2008 at 2:14 pm
Lisa,
Take you items to the Ecology Action site at IH35 and 9th Street. They have a pretty complete program. Many people from Austin do it. I’ve done it for years.
Jason Bean
posted on November 6th, 2008 at 8:24 am
I am excited to hear about growth in recycling efforts in any corner of the country.
We have been operating the very popular Paper Retriever recycling program in the Austin
area for many years and not a week goes by that we are not contacted by additional
locations in and around Austin interested in hosting a Paper Retriever container for the
local community to use for recycling paper. There are over 400 locations (use our website
to find one nearest you) schools, churches, and other non-profit groups around Austin, and
since the program is also a fund raisier, they get paid for the paper collected. They have earned over $100,000 dollars over the past year!
Penny Cowan
posted on March 2nd, 2009 at 4:35 pm
I taught recycling at Matthews Elem. over 30 years ago. I have been very conscious of it since that time. Through those years I have watched what has to be the biggest offenders. People who use styro- foam products can help the most. Restaurants can make a big difference. People’s pharmacy has a biodegraible plastic cup. I would guess it makes your drink more expensive, but I choose to use it in many restaurants that are using foam. Additionally, you can wrap anything in paper for take-out. The argument is about getting sick from not using it soon enough. It is an excuse. I have loved the places that preserve in paper rather than foam. Also, I buy Tide in a box rather than plastic because I know it cannot be recycled. I so believe in our God and our earth. I do wish others would take care of it.