A.G. Gancarski
The Jacksonville City Council has been wrestling with the issue of blight created by donation bins for some time, with a legislative process that has been less than conclusive.
A meeting this month was Council’s latest attempt to formulate legislation that would address the issue. And there have been at least preliminary inquiries into a potential new revenue source for the city’s recycling program.
Councilman John Crescimbeni sent an email to city officials, including CAO Sam Mousa, that addressed it:
“Because it became quite evident (at Thursday’s meeting on donation bins) that there must be significant money in clothing/textile recycling (as evidenced by the three gentlemen who flew in for the meeting from New York and Connecticut), I was wondering if you were aware of whether any other municipalities include clothing/textiles in their single-stream recycling programs – and if so, what type of results they were achieving?”
Half the material by Go Green, one provider, received in bins becomes recycled textiles. “The Pakistanis will buy used shoes for 5 cents a pound, and almost like Hamburger Helper, they are processed and put into the asphalt,” said a representative for another company at the meeting.
Crescimbeni was also looking for a way to benefit from recycled textiles to meet mandates: “Also, are the volumes of clothing/textiles recycled – by donation bin operators in Duval County – being reported in any way to the state for the purposes of helping us meet our mandated recycling percentages? If not, would there be any benefit in the City Council requiring that such information be reported as part of the ordinance rewrite?”
