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Garbage Gains A Second Life

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By JOYCE McKENZIE, The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 5, 2007

TEMPLE TERRACE - What's deemed trivial trash by some is a gold mine of glorious garbage to others.

The latter is the case with administrators at the city's Public Works Department, who are vigilant in urging residents to recycle their rubbish. The rewards, they say, come in the form of renewed commodities, a reduction in the tons of trash dumped in the county's landfill and a cleaner environment.

Although it's not mandatory, the city provides green bins to every single-family household in hopes that families will recycle items such as newsprint, magazines, junk mail and phone books; plastic bottles and containers; steel and tin food cans; glass bottles and jars; and aluminum cans.

'We'll take just about anything from the supermarket or if it comes in your mailbox,' said Ray LeBlanc, Temple Terrace's sanitation coordinator, who noted that his crew collects about 125 tons of recyclables each month.

They are collected at 7 a.m. every Wednesday, along with residents' yard waste.

The city also provides recycling service to multifamily complexes and collects some 30 tons a month in recyclable cardboard boxes and paper from area businesses.

In addition, residents may call the Public Works Department for pickup of items that don't fit the requirements for normal collection, such as furniture and appliances. There is a service charge added to the resident's monthly $18.85 garbage collection bill.

Temple Terrace holds an annual spring cleanup day, during which residents may drop off old computers, other electronics and household chemicals at the public works building. That day, items such as furniture and appliances are picked up free of charge.

Hazardous materials must be taken to one of the county's chemical collection centers.

'I think we provide people with an excellent service, and we're trying to get the message out about the importance of recycling,' said public works Director Steve Hodge.

The reason recyclables are so valuable, he said, is that they are processed into raw materials that can be used to manufacture new products. The paper industry relies on recovered paper for much of its feedstock; steel companies recycle iron and steel scrap; and the aluminum manufacturers count on used aluminum cans to produce new products.

The 'Greening the Government Through Waste Prevention and Recycling' pamphlet published by the White House Task Force on Recycling reported that nearly half the paper produced in the United States comes from reused paper products; two thirds of the country's steel production is from recovered steel; and aluminum cans contain more than 50 percent recycled content.

Temple Terrace's general household garbage and light industry trash is hauled to Hillsborough County's Resource Recovery Facility on Falkenburg Road. Through a process of high-temperature incineration that together with reclaimed water produces steam, 90 percent of the trash is converted into electricity. The energy is then sold to Tampa Electric, which distributes it to power homes and businesses.

The remaining 10 percent of waste, such as bulky items and construction debris, is disposed of at the Southeast County Landfill in Balm. Leftover ash from the burning process is also taken to the site to be used in place of dirt.

According to Glenn Hoag, facility manager of Covanta Energy, the company contracted by the county to produce electricity from waste, the conversion system contains air pollution control devices that prevent '99.9 percent' of harmful emissions from contaminating the environment.

'I found their process really impressive,' Hodge said.

Temple Terrace's yard waste is also transported to the resource recovery facility, where it's dumped at a compost site. It's then ground into mulch and sold to nurseries and the public.

'There are two other waste transfer stations, one in North Tampa and one in South County, but our energy-generating plant and the compost site next door are the cornerstone of Hillsborough County's waste management,' Hoag said.

Temple Terrace pays $54.23 per ton for the waste its haulers dump at the recovery facility, an amount Hodge said could significantly increase over the next few years.

'It's just the cost of doing business,' he said.

That's not the case, however, with WM/Recycle America in North Tampa, where Temple Terrace sanitation workers have taken residents' recyclable glass, plastic bottles, aluminum and tin cans since 1998.

'They don't pay the city for the materials we bring there,' LeBlanc said. 'But, they are dumped off at no charge, which avoids a disposal fee on our part.'

Tampa plant manager Greg Branam said all recyclables except newspapers are sent to its Sarasota plant, where they are separated, baled and taken to the company's mills to be processed.

Newspapers remain at the Tampa facility and are sorted, loaded in trailers and delivered to a paper mill to be recycled into newsprint.

Smurfit-Stone in Tampa is the city's chosen contractor to process used paper and corrugated containers. The resulting fibers have several uses according to their grade, said company spokesman Bill Gillis.

'Some goes for toilet paper, Kleenex and some goes to make more paper and corrugated containers,' said Gillis, who noted his company gives rebates for the reusable materials Temple Terrace sanitation haulers bring to them.

The repayment, on average, is $40 per ton, according to Hodge, and Smurfit processes about 30 tons of Temple Terrace's recyclables a month.

'They're a great partner,' he said. 'The reality is we're happy to do business with businesses that are going to be around for awhile, as they are.'

Although there are costs to the city for recycling, Hodge said they are kept to a minimum by contracting the work to outside sources. If the city were to establish its own recycling plants, the program's expenses would be significantly higher.

'That saves us money and keeps our costs down,' he said.

MAKING CONTACT

For information about waste disposal in Temple Terrace, visit www.templeterrace.com/ publicworks/ and click on the 'Sanitation' link or call the Public Works Department at (813) 989-7170.

Reporter Joyce McKenzie can be reached at (813) 865-4849 or jmckenzie@tampatrib.com.

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