Budget Cuts Could Hurt Recycling in Leon County
July 27, 2012
It's business as usual at the Leon County Waste Management facility. Except for at the recycling building, where there no longer is a recycling coordinator.
"The prior responsibilities of the recycling coordinator have been able to be absorbed with the existing remaining staff of solid waste. So individuals will be doing recording, customer service, community education and outreach," said Maggie Theriot, the director for Leon County's Office of Resource Stewardship.
The coordinator position was on the chopping block when Leon County needed to balance the 2013 budget. Local Leon County community recycling group the Green Yarders see this as a big step backwards.
"We're going to be losing our lynchpin in the recycling program, and the person in charge of who's doing what, what's getting done, and what needs to be improved," said Green Yarders chairwoman Ann Bidlingmaier.
The Green Yarders fear that the elimination of this position will cause an already low 39 percent recycle rate in Leon County to drop even more.
"I think we're going to see a decline in recycling programs, we may see more recycling polluted with trash if we don't have an adequate supervisor," said Bidlingmaier.
The County is confident that the impact will be light.
"There will be a small direct impact for those citizens who are traveling to our waste management facility. We accept cardboard and styrofoam there, and from this point forward that will be a self-service role," Theriot said.
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