Mariajose Garza/THE RIDER
This year kicks off the Brownsville residential curbside recycling program, a partnership between RedFish Recycling and the city.
The main objective of the program is to extend the life of the landfill, according to Alan Guard, Brownsville interim city manager.
“One of the things that we’re really lucky as a city is we own and operate the landfill,” Guard said. “It generates about $9 million that goes into our general fund.”
He added the landfill is a “blessing” because other cities do not have their own.
“We take in garbage from Harlingen, we take in garbage from Los Fresnos because we are the regional landfill,” Guard said. “They pay us to use our landfill.”
He said the recycling program came as a part of feedback from the community and commissioners interested.
“At the same time, we wanted to do a contract for our residential garbage and our commercial garbage,” Guard said. “So, we went out and did [a request for proposal] for garbage, residential and commercial, and for mandatory recycling.”
He said, after a three-month process, three companies responded to the request in which the city evaluated the proposals.
The city commission made the decision to pick Republic Services for residential and commercial garbage collection and Redfish for mandatory residential recycling, according to the interim city manager.
Guard added the preparation for the recycling program overall was “really smooth.”
“We had wanted to start the program in October, but [Redfish Recycling] needed to buy the bins and get them sent out,” he said. “They were very efficient. They got 48,000 bins out in a month.”
Guard said the program, in one year, will save about 78,000 trees, 25 million gallons of water, 25,000 kilowatts of electricity, and 63,000 cubic yards at the city’s landfill.
“It’s good for the environment, but it’s financially and fiscally responsible too,” he said. “It helps us save money on water, electricity, and it saves room in the landfill, which means we can help pay for Brownsville services.”
Rose Timmer, education outreach with Redfish Recycling, said Redfish became the contractor for picking up curbside recycling within the city limits of Brownsville.
“They were looking for somebody to bring curbside recycling to Brownsville,” Timmer said. “They put a request for proposal out in public … and we were awarded that proposal.”
She mentioned they have received good participation in the program. About 80% of the people who have red bins put out their recycling material in the bins.
“Looking at the material that’s brought from the recycle cans, we are finding that the contamination is very minimal,” Timmer added.
She added the recycling program’s long-term goal is to save the landfill and save the environment. The short-term goal is to get participation and recycling right for Brownsville residents.
Mariajose Garza/THE RIDER
