ECUA Sees No Immediate Changes After West Florida Recycling Bankruptcy

April 3, 2014

When you toss out your recyclables for ECUA to pick up each week, your plastic bottles, papers and other items make their way to West Florida Recycling on North Palafox Street.

But earlier this week, West Florida Recycling filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. For now, officials at ECUA say they plan to continue to utilize the company to process recyclables, as long as they can continue to provide services in accordance with ECUA’s contract.

“We’ve worked to establish an alternate solution, should that be necessary,because we are committed to maintaining our recycling program in place.” ECUA spokesperson Nathalie Bowers said Wednesday.  “Having already converted our fleet of collection vehicles to Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) from diesel has given us options that we might not have had one or two years ago.  The reduced fuel costs give us the option of considering recycling processors who are  further away, at the same cost, and certainly at a lower cost than landfilling these recyclables locally.”

Regardless of ECUA’s next move, if any, Bowers said she does not foresee any rate increases or changes in the level of recycling service at this time.

ECUA customers currently recycle about 215 ton per week, or about 15 percent of the total residential waste stream. About two-thirds of ECUA’s 73,000 residential customers participate in the recycling program.

“Our recyclables are considered to be of very high quality, with little contamination, largely due to the voluntary aspect of our program,” Bowers added.

ECUA does not pay West Florida Recycling; rather the company makes money by selling the processed recyclables.

Pictured top: An ECUA CNG-powered truck. File photo, click to enlarge.

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Written by William Reynolds · Filed Under News