JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Bruce Yergin’s entire car was full of recyclables.
He was unloading it at one of Jacksonville's recycling drop-off sites recently.
Nodding at the car, "This is about two to three weeks worth."
Commenting about the state of recycling in the city, Yergin calmly said, "This is terrible."
Yergin and others hard-core recycling enthusiasts have been driving their recyclables to sites like this since the city stopped the curbside service in the fall.
Come April, they will not have to drive to recycle any longer. That's when curbside recycling will resume in Jacksonville.
And the kinds of things you can put into your recycling bin may change.
For example, Jacksonville City Councilman Ron Salem – who is leading the city’s special committee on solid waste -- is proposing that glass no longer be accepted.
"There’s not a market for glass," he told First Coast News.
Salem says when glass goes from your home to the recycling center and is gathered to be sold, hardly anyone or any company is buying it to recycle it into something else. And so eventually the glass is taken to the dump, which costs the city even more money than taking it directly to the landfill.
"Glass is costing us $160,000 (a year)," he said.
"Presently we are recycling glass, but I hope we make a decision before we reinstitute recycling," Salem said.
And then there are those plastic bags people fill with recyclables. The sorters at the recycling center will not dump the items out and throw away the trash bag. The whole bag goes to the landfill. And the city ends up paying double for that full plastic bag: once for sending it to the recycling facility and then again for transporting it to the dump.
So the city is working on an app which will enable users to easily look up what can and cannot be placed into a recycle bin.
Why is that important? Again, because wrong things sent to the recycling facility costs the city more money.
"Last year we lost $1.5 million on recycling," Salem said.
That has not always been the case. He said five years ago, the city actually made $1.5 million on selling the recyclable materials to companies that used it. However, now "the market has changed and China is not using this stuff like they used to."
Also, Jacksonville residents may end up paying more for the trucks to come down their streets to pick up recycling and trash.
Currently, residents pay $12.65 a month for that service. However, that’s not enough to pay the price tag of the haulers... which may likely go up even more.
Salem noted that the actual cost "of solid waste is probably somewhere between $16 - $18 a month."
He said the city will discuss raising the monthly residential fee.
Yergin and many others are willing to pay more to have curbside recycling pick up.
Yergin said as he toted another paper bag of recyclables from his car to the dumpster, "It's good for the environment. It really is."