What happened to Bradenton’s recycling drop-off sites? City plans major changes
Four years after the city of Bradenton eliminated curbside recycling, city officials say recycling drop-off sites are illegal dumping hotspots, and change is coming.
In December, city council members debated whether to bring back curbside recycling or to modify the current drop-off system. According to city officials, the increased illegal dumping is contaminating the recycling and making it unable to be processed.
After the city council decided to eliminate curbside recycling in 2022, Bradenton established 10 recycling drop-off sites. As of mid-April, only three remain, and the city council decided to reduce that to only one drop-off site.
The consolidation will happen in a couple of months, City Administrator Rob Perry told the Bradenton Herald on Thursday. Perry said the city wants to continue offering recycling to residents, but educational signs about illegal dumping have “not been effective.”
“We can’t basically compromise the health of the city when people are irresponsible and don’t comply with legal dumping requirements,” said Perry, suggesting that the piles of trash left at recycling drop-offs had become a public safety hazard. “So what we’re going to plan on doing is set up a collection site in the Tropicana area.”
The city is also moving its public works department to a new area near the Tropicana facility on Ninth Street East. Perry said the new recycling drop-off site will have restricted hours so that it can be monitored, and will likely have cameras.
“It’s unfortunate, quite frankly, that we have to close some of those recycling areas,” Perry said.
Contamination, illegal dumping forces recycling changes
The city offers three recycling drop-off sites, which are posted on the city’s website. Until the city changes to the Tropicana drop-off site, residents interested in recycling can visit the current sites at:
- 100 22nd St. NE in a parking area next to the city lift station
- 1000 24th St. E, adjacent to the Dream Center
- 3120 First Ave. W., in the Lewis Park parking lot
According to Tiffany Shadik, the city’s public information manager, the city began eliminating some of the drop-off sites “due to continued contamination, low use or changes at specific properties.”
“One of the primary challenges with both curbside and drop-off recycling has been contamination. When non-recyclable materials are placed in recycling containers, it can compromise entire loads, meaning recyclable materials may ultimately be diverted to the landfill,” Shadik said in an email.
“At some locations, containers have also been misused, with bulk items such as furniture, mattresses, and other household waste left outside of the containers,” Shadik continued. “This constitutes illegal dumping and has contributed to continued maintenance challenges. In some cases, these conditions have made it difficult to sustain sites long-term.”
City council debates changes to recycling
The decision to consolidate recycling drop-off sites came at the city council’s December workshop. City staff said the city could bring curbside recycling back, but at a cost. Either the city could reduce trash pickup to once a week and implement recycling, or keep the twice per week trash pickup and charge residents $8.47 for recycling.
That would increase the resident’s monthly trash bill to $26.67. The city of Sarasota charges $33.02 per month and Manatee County charges $23.65 per month, both for once per week trash pickup, according to a city staff presentation.
However, the council debated whether it would be fair to raise the trash bill for everyone, including residents who do not recycle.
“If you decide to basically raise the rate to cover it would cost everybody $8…but you’re doing it for the benefit of 10% of the consumers,” Perry said at the December workshop.
Councilwoman Lisa Gonzalez Moore was the strongest proponent of bringing curbside recycling back, and said she would be okay with changing to one day a week trash pickup.
“I mean, is it a good look for us to say that the friendly city doesn’t recycle?” Moore said.
However, most other council members seemed against the one-day-a-week change.
Councilwoman Marianne Barnebey said the city would need to buy the new bins like the 96-gallon ones that Manatee County uses, adding that she’s heard complaints about the smell and cleanliness of the larger bins.
Barnebey said there might be some value to recycling to the environment, but guessed that, if the city asked residents if they’d be willing to bring back recycling for a cost, many wouldn’t want to pay for it.
“But we also need to look at what is the value of recycling in the eyes of the majority of the people that live in the city, and I think you’re seeing there is a small group that is very pro recycling and very loud about it,” Barnebey said.
Perry said the council will be briefed at a public meeting about the upcoming changes to recycling in a couple of months.
