Recyclables piling up at Jacksonville woman’s house since city did away with curbside recycling

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Recyclable waste is piling up at Donna Handforth’s house. She lives with bins full of empty cat food and soda cans, plastic bottles, paper, and cardboard.

“I’m having to just let everything pile up. I really do not want to have to put it into a landfill,” Handforth told Action News Jax.

Things took a turn for the worse for Handforth in October when she learned the city of Jacksonville halted its curbside recycling services.

Despite the city offering 14 recycle drop-off sites, Handforth says she can’t raise her arm above her head because of an accident years ago, so lifting lids of dumpsters and dumping recyclables into them would be nearly impossible for her.

“For people like myself who are disabled, we cannot get our items to these sites,” she said.

Just last week the city said there’s no timeline for when curbside recycling would resume, saying if it were to bring the service back right away, yard waste and trash collections would suffer.

Haulers say it’s a labor issue; Waste Pro and Waste Management report being down roughly 32 drivers, and Meridian reports its drivers are out with Covid.

Handforth worries she won’t be able to hold onto her recyclables much longer. ”With the warm weather coming up soon, the cans are going to start crawling if they’re not picked up,” she added.

Action News Jax reached out to the city of Jacksonville and asked if there are any options for people like Handforth.

We’ll update this story with a response.

©2022 Cox Media Group