Jun. 12—A monetary grant of more than a half million dollars to Decatur’s recycling program will be used to buy thousands of large recycling bins and to make improvements at the Recycling Center.
Operated by the Morgan County Regional Landfill, the program received a $217,500 grant from Recycling Partnership, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that promotes access to recycling, to purchase more than 3,000 96-gallon recycling bins, larger than the bins being used by most residents. The nonprofit will also provide $125,000 worth of in-kind services that include educational and outreach efforts for the Decatur program as part of the agreement with the city.
In addition, the landfill received a $300,000 grant from the nonprofit for improvements to the Recycling Center.
The City Council voted unanimously last week to accept the two grants.
The landfill also received a $300,000 grant from Alabama Department of Environmental Management in October for a 6,000-square-foot Recycling Center addition.
Landfill Director Wanda Tyler said the plan is to use the Recycling Partnership grant to improve the baler and buy a Bobcat.
The program began switching from 60-gallon to 96-gallon recycling cans last fall with a $50,000 grant from ADEM. Tyler said they bought 75 larger cans with a portion of the grant and distributed them to the city’s new subdivisions.
She said the Recycling Partnership grant will purchase 3,300 more 96-gallon recycling containers.
“This won’t buy all of the cans we need,” Tyler said. “We’ll reach less than half of those who want them.”
Councilman Kyle Pike, the council liaison to the landfill and the recycling program, said the plan is a slow roll-out, “so we’ll continue gradually buying new carts to replace the older ones.”
Tyler said she knows not everyone, particularly senior adults, will want the larger, heavier bins. She said they plan to send out a flyer first to gauge interest in switching to the new recycling carts.
She said the expanded facility and larger cans will allow the program to expand the kinds of items they will accept. For example, they will begin accepting No. 5 plastic (polypropylene) for items like yogurt containers and bottle caps.
Decatur’s Solid Waste Department has about 19,000 customers. Roughly 10,600 customers, or 56%, participate in the recycling program, Tyler said.
“That’s really good for a municipality, but we know we can do even better,” she said.
Tyler said about $1.2 million from the Landfill Fund budget pays for recycling collections and the Materials Recovery Facility while recycling only makes $300,000 in sales from the commodities market.
“Recycling is still a losing proposition for the city,” Tyler said. “Improvements in the commodities market and the recent grants are helping us so we’re not relying on the Landfill Fund so much.”
Pike said he’s OK with the recycling program even though it’s not self-supporting.
“There’s a lot of people who want to recycle,” Pike said. “It’s just something they want to do, especially since it helps the environment. Obviously, from a business standpoint it’s not a money maker, but it is a service to our citizens.”
The U.S. Census Bureau estimated Decatur’s population was just over 58,000 in July 2023. Tyler said many of these residents live in apartments or town homes. The residents or landlords must hire a private company to haul the garbage to the landfill.
She said residents whose garbage is privately picked up can’t participate in the city recycling program.
— bayne.hughes@decaturdaily.com or 256-340-2432
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