Starkville starting over with curbside recycling

Recycling symbol.jpg [1]

By KELLY DANIELS
citybeat@bellsouth.net [2]

Starkville’s free curbside recycling program is starting over. Again.
After accepting a bid from the BluBox recycling service of Columbus, Starkville officials recently learned that Mississippi Industrial Waste bought the company.
And the independent disposal hauler is not a fan of Starkville’s contract with BluBox.
The Starkville Board of Aldermen made another request Tuesday for recycling companies to submit proposals to work with the Starkville Sanitation and Environmental Services Department in recycling materials picked up by its staff.
Ward 3 Alderman and Recycling chair Eric Parker said that Mississippi Industrial Waste will continue to abide by the city’s contract with BluBox until officials approve a bid for the curbside recycling program.
Mississippi Industrial Waste wanted to increase the $5-per-yard fee paid to BluBox to $15 per yard, Parker reported.
But, he added, there’s no need for local recyclers to panic.
“Even if the bids come back as high as they want, we’ve been looking at consolidating come costs so our spending would not be tripled,” Parker said.
The city’s curbside recycling program has been in operation since Ocrober 2009.
The program saw participating families placing their recyclables in special green bags for collection by city sanitation crews twice a month according to specified garbage collection routes.
City officials initially had contracted with Starkville Recycling to process the recyclables, but chose not to renew that contract.

Editor’s note: As city officials make decisions about changes to the curbside recycling program, information will be reported by the Starkville Daily News in as timely as manner as possible.