JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — For more than four months, if you live in Jacksonville, you have not had a recycling truck come down your street.
The city’s temporary stop to curbside recycling is really starting to irk some people especially because they're paying for a service they’re not getting.
Katie Mills drove to one of the recycling drop-off sites on Jacksonville’s southside Thursday in order to continue her recycling regimen.
"It’s really inconvenient," she commented. "Having to pack everything up and driving, It is a bit of a hassle."
The city’s solid waste worries started when waste haulers couldn’t find the people to work the trucks. The staffing shortages had to do with increased demand for drivers nationwide and because of covid-driven quarantines. In September, in order to make sure your household trash and yard waste were picked up routinely, the City of Jacksonville suspended curbside recycling pickup.
"I wish it would come back to the house," Mills nodded.
She and everyone else in Jax still pay for that truck to come down the street. It's about $12 a month, and that money goes into something called the city's Enterprise Fund.
So if money for the drivers is part of the issue, First Coast News asked people at the drop-off site, "Would you pay more to have curbside recycling pick up?"
Most of them said "yes".
When First Coast News asked the Chief Administrative Officer in the Mayor's Office, Brian Hughes, about the possibility of raising the monthly collection fees, he said the mayor plans to propose a different policy. And that policy would actually get rid of the $12 charge.
Instead of paying for trash and recycling from the city’s specific Enterprise Fund (where your $12 goes), Hughes said the mayor’s office will suggest paying for solid waste collection from the city's general fund. Why?
He said, "We have $2 billion of pie here. Let’s just change how we cut the pie."
That may sound promising, but moving money around “will not impact the curbside recycling service.” That’s a quote provided by the mayor’s office.
The biggest hurdles for curbside recycling according to Hughes is "Staffing levels and economics. The inflation hitting everything right now is hitting that industry as well."
If you’re confused about the money situation and about how moving funding sources could help -- or not help -- recycling pick up, you’re not alone. And really, most people don't care which fund the money is coming from, they just want to know when the recycling truck is coming down their street again.
The short answer is: there’s no timeline.
Also, Hughes said when curbside recycling returns, it won’t be start in one neighborhood, and then in another neighborhood, it will return citywide all at once.
"When we bring back curbside we want it to be consistent service people can expect," Hughes said.
As for Mills and other dedicated recyclers at the drop-off sites, they’re more than ready to not have to drive in order to recycle.
"I just hope it ends soon," Mills said.