Residential Recycling: Over Half Of ECUA Customers Go Green

March 6, 2011

Two years after voluntary residential recycling was made available by the Emerald Coast Utility Authority, over half of their customers are taking part.

The ECUA recycling program debuted on January 5, 2009, as part of the regular residential sanitation program. Now just over two years later, 53 percent of ECUA’s 73,000 customers have chosen to use the program.

“The recycling service continues to evolve with tremendous success. Over 39,000 customers are currently participating in the program,” according to Randy Rudd, ECUA’s director of sanitation services. “We are currently collecting 170 tons of recyclable materials, per week, which is the average weekly tonnage for the year-to-date on all ECUA routes.”

During the week of January 4 through January 10 of this year the ECUA collected a two-year program record of 196 tons of recyclable materials. ECUA is currently delivering an average of about 50 new cans per week to customers who have requested to join the recycling program.

For a complete list of items accepted for recycling by ECUA, click here. For more information on taking part in the recycling program, contact ECUA customer service at (850) 476-0480 or visit www.ecua.org.

Comments

6 Responses to “Residential Recycling: Over Half Of ECUA Customers Go Green”

  1. art on March 7th, 2011 3:51 pm

    that is why this area needs a recycling center that will take everything you haul up there and give you a little pocket jingle in return. plastic, bottles, paper, cardboard, aluminum, metal. it all has to be properly bagged and sorted etc. and it wont cut into ECUA’s business hardly at all. not everyone has the means or desire to haul their stuff around. but each and everyone of us can do our part in taking pride in our surrounding area. it is a beautiful part of this planet and we have a lot to be thankful for. recycling helps us keep it that way.

  2. bama54 on March 7th, 2011 3:40 pm

    Art, you make a good point I already know, but it chaps me to see this county in shape it is in, and all we ever here out of all the officials is we don’t have the money! Well you know I don’t have the money either, I’ll sell my cans myself and try to make a little extra for my family. We always have the people who “have” tell the ones who “don’t” what we should be doing. I am not lazy, I just tired of not getting anything in return.

  3. art on March 7th, 2011 11:13 am

    you make some good points bama…but bottom line don’t think of recycling as a profit making proposition although i don’t see the problem with being reimbursed for your efforts and your recyclables a bit. ( you did pay for all that packaging and bottling and plastic stuff in the first place.) but think of recycling as protecting your family’s future access to resources. think of it as a way to make resources stretch. the less we send to the landfill the better. places like new york and new jersey are learning that the hard way.

  4. art on March 7th, 2011 9:40 am

    your recyclables are valuable. think about it. ecua and other businesses would not do it if there was not a profit. you have to make your business grow. it isnt charity work they are doing here…but how nice it would be if we had a real state of the art recycling center where folks could go around the highways and country roads picking up trash and sorting it themselves and taking it in and getting a few bucks for it. i would let my friends and neighbors know they could count on me to pick up all their aluminum and/or bottles. plastics too. this recycling program of ECUA’s is awesome and everyone ought to take advantage of it! cardboard and paper boxes are going to the landfill by the truckload unless you recycle it and yes they are valuable resources. so come on ECUA, why not make a provision for jane and john doe to be able to bring in their recyclables and get a little return? i mean if you aren’t going to reduce rates, isn’t it the least you can do? oh, what is that? you don’t give a hoot? well then take your trucks and your manpower and pay those guys overtime to pick up all the recyclable materials on every single roadside you supply services to. not feeling all that “green” unless it is in YOUR pocket? smile.

  5. Bama54 on March 6th, 2011 7:19 pm

    I not Lazy, I am just waiting for some type of cost savings the ecua will pass on to me. I want to see my bill come down!! They cut my service in half, and how much did my bill come down?? There is not a dollar amount mentioned, so how much is ecua making/saving off this recycle program. Show me the money!! I my opinion, for the ones who do not participate, there will become an outcry for those of us who do not participate to pay a mandatory extra fee. Just because someone thinks I am Lazy!!

  6. Bamcubz on March 6th, 2011 12:43 pm

    Yeah !!! for the 53% now what’s wrong with the rest of you … LAZY ?!?! Get with the program. Maybe if they charged by the pound to pick up you trash you would think twice.