JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Locals in Jacksonville are calling to bring back curbside recycling after the city suspended the service indefinitely back in October because of a labor shortage.
Since then, locals have been taking their recyclables to 14 drop-off sites across town.
Already, just over 1,200 people — less than one percent of Jacksonville’s population— have signed this petition calling city leaders to bring back curbside recycling.
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Images sent to Action News Jax from over Christmas weekend showed recyclables overflowing at Castaway Island Preserve, one of the city’s sites.
On Tuesday afternoon, crews brought in two dump trucks to collect the recyclables that had been spilling out of the bins.
The Action News Jax Skyvision drone caught similar images at the Girvin Road Landfill site Monday. Action News Jax crews swung by the site again at noon Tuesday and spotted a truck emptying dumpsters.
Our crews also hit up the Blue Cypress Park site an hour later and found that all its dumpsters were mostly empty. A local man told us the bins had been overflowing Monday.
Though crews have been emptying the recycling dumpsters several times a day, locals like Denny Winkelman worry it’s not enough. Like many others, he misses curbside recycling.
“I just saw the truck leave, which is a good sign, because every time I come here to recycle it’s always super full,” he said at the Castaway Island Preserve site.
The city tells Action News Jax Waste Management still needs to fill about eight positions.
Even a local company has offered to help. For now, the company is asking to remain unnamed. A manager there tells Action News Jax the facility separates, cleans, and grinds down plastic bottles to be reused in other materials. The company says it has reached out to city leaders and has offered to create a free drop-off site at the facility, and would like to educate locals on recycling.
As for Winkelman, he’ll continue doing his part, and he’s staying hopeful.
“It’s temporary, hopefully, and it seems to be working, so I’ll come here as much as it takes until it’s implemented back into the normal routine,” he said.
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Action News Jax has reached out to the city and requested all recycling complaints it has received from September through now. We’ll update this story with that response.
A city spokesperson told Action News Jax she’s waiting to hear back from Public Works on when curbside services would resume.
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