By Jim Little, Pensacola News Journal
Despite a rocky rollout, more than 2,200 households have signed up for Pensacola’s new recycling program in the first three weeks, and the city appears to have caught up on all aspects of its trash service.
Pensacola Energy and Sanitation Services Director Darryl Singleton told the News Journal that trash service is fully caught up on pick-ups throughout the city.
For several weeks, the city has been dealing with staffing shortages in the sanitation department, leading to the city getting weeks behind in yard waste pick-ups. Then came a curbside recycling change that moved trash pick-ups from once a week to twice a week. Many residents never got the message about the change from the city, while others were unhappy about the change to pick up once a week and have voiced frustration at town halls. But sign-ups appear to be increasing despite the $8 a month price tag.
“We’re current on everything,” Singleton said. “…Everything now is on schedule. We’re fully staffed. Everything is working out really well for us.”
The city has also collected 24,000 pounds of recycling that only had a 6% contamination rate — a far cry from the 50% rate the city was running when it ended the free curbside recycling program in 2023.
“It’s phenomenal,” Singleton said of the contamination rate. “In our contract now with ECUA, we have to keep (contamination) under 20%. So at 6%, people are doing great.”
Singleton said a lot of the contamination is likely plastic bags from retail or similar items that people don’t realize aren’t allowed in recycling.
Last year, the city announced it would bring back curbside recycling using in-house staff and a grant from the Recycling Partnership that would install AI cameras to detect contamination in recycling and enable the city to avoid costly fees.
Part of that grant includes an education campaign, which will begin in the next few weeks.
Singleton said he believes the campaign will boost recycling sign-ups and knowledge about what can be recycled.
“It’s been a long road to get here. Two years in the making,” Pensacola Mayor D.C. Reeves said in a statement to the News Journal. “We made the decision to stop a broken, contaminated mandatory recycling program that, left unfixed, would have skyrocketed customer bills. We have revived an opt-in program that has required hard work at City Sanitation and even more patience from our citizens.
Reeves said the latest recycling report, with 94% clean recycling, “is a symbol of the light at the end of the tunnel.”
“Today we are in a better place for our citizens and for our environment,” Reeves said.