Pulaski County's six Saturday morning recycling drop-off sites will close at the end of the month after nearly 10 years of operation, the Regional Recycling and Solid Waste Management District and its board decided Thursday.
The drop-offs, originally funded using recycling grant money from the Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality, were not intended to be permanent, recycling officials in the county have said. They were intended to provide recycling until the county and cities could implement their own recycling programs.
The Regional Recycling and Solid Waste Management District -- a state agency that operates only in Pulaski County -- has for the past two years proposed budgets that use the dwindling grant funds for other projects in the area.
"That's kind of been something they've talked about doing for a while," Sherwood Mayor Virginia Hillman said. "We knew that it was going to come to an end."
Last year, the district's board asked twice to fund the drop-offs for another six months. Board members did not ask to do so again this year before approving the $1.3 million fiscal 2015 budget at their quarterly meeting Thursday.
"We're redirecting the money into programs that are more meaningful right now," district Executive Director John Roberts said. "I don't want to talk about this anymore. It's water under the bridge."
In addition to drop-offs, the county spends funds on education, promotion and advertising of current services. It is also locked into contracts with private companies for recycling and recycling incentives.
The district plans to spend $100,000 for education and promotion, along with smaller amounts to promote multifamily facility recycling and provide recycling at the Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure and the Little Rock Zoo.
The contracts include $80,000 with L&W Environmental Inc., which is a construction and demolition facility that sells ground shingles for out-of-state road projects, and $134,063 with Waste Management for the Recyclebank rewards program for curbside customers.
In its budget, the district listed receiving $265,000 in recycling grants for fiscal 2015 -- $85,000 less than it received last year. Five of the drop-offs cost $137,000 each year to operate, and a sixth was opened by the district in January after previously being privately funded.
The drop-offs take in about 400 tons of recyclable materials each year, but district officials have said they aren't as cost efficient as other methods, such as curbside pickup.
Three cities host the six drop-offs, which are open from 7 a.m. to noon every Saturday. Little Rock has four: Joe's Grocery on Colonel Glenn Road, Chenal Valley Drive just north of St. Margaret's Episcopal Church, Southwest Community Center Complex on Baseline Road and Fair Park Boulevard across from the Little Rock Zoo. North Little Rock has a drop-off at the McCain Avenue and North Hills Boulevard Kroger parking lot, and Sherwood has one at East Kiehl Avenue and Lois Lane.
The drop-offs are largely used by apartment-dwellers and residents in the county's and surrounding counties' unincorporated areas who don't have access to curbside recycling.
In March, the Little Rock Board of Directors passed a mandate for all multifamily complexes with more than 100 units to provide recycling. The ordinance goes into effect Jan. 1, meaning that, for the next six months, the city will be without recycling options other than curbside and electronics drop-offs.
Little Rock Mayor Mark Stodola, who is on the district's board, said after the meeting that he'd still like to see what the district can do to move funds around to continue the drop-offs.
Pulaski County Judge Buddy Villines said the county has looked into providing recycling for its unincorporated area, but the cost of doing so is prohibitive.
"For some areas really interested in recycling and using the drop-offs, they're going to have to put them in the trash," he said.
North Little Rock does not require recycling for apartment complexes and has not funded a drop-off site of its own, although Mayor Joe Smith has previously expressed interest in funding one.
Sherwood also does not fund a drop-off site of its own. Maumelle and Jacksonville do not have drop-off centers affected by the closures.
Metro on 06/13/2014