Austin Resource Recovery gets ready for the new year

Austin Resource Recovery plans to collect a total of 260,375 tons of waste from curbside and drop-off center operations during Fiscal Year 2025, with an estimated 40 percent of curbside collected materials to be diverted from landfills, according to a recent report. That’s an increase from the 251,294 tons of waste collected from curbside and drop-off center operations and 37.04 percent of curbside collected materials diverted from landfills in Fiscal Year 2024.

The Zero Waste Advisory Commission heard a staff briefing from Theodore Horton, deputy director of Austin Resource Recovery, during their regular meeting on Jan. 8, regarding the breakdown analysis of waste and organics collections, the status of Austin Resource Recovery operational and administrative projects, and public outreach efforts.

Data used in Austin Resource Recovery reports are divided into three main categories: tons disposed, tons diverted and tons composted, with further subcategories within each. Tons disposed refers to waste collected curbside and from drop-off center operations that then enters a landfill. Tons diverted refers to waste that is collected in the same manner but does not end up at a landfill.

Within the tons disposed category, “tons of curbside trash” is the leading subcategory for waste generation with 135,000 tons expected to be collected in FY 2025.

“We are literally talking about the refuse that folks throw in their carts and put out as well as extra trash,” Horton said when giving a breakdown of the waste and organics collection process.

“Tons of curbside bulk disposed” is estimated to reach 8,531 tons and will be moving to a new, on-call system, Horton said. “Household waste operations tons disposed” is anticipated to hit 600 tons and occurs at Austin’s drop-off center. “Estimated tons of curbside recycling residuals” include “materials at the materials recovery facility that is unfortunately not recycled or captured by the equipment,” Horton said, and will likely reach 10,865 tons.

Within the tons diverted category, “total tons of recyclables collected” is the leading subcategory with 51,135 tons expected to be collected in FY 2025. “Resource Recovery Center tons recycled/reused” includes materials like cardboard and Styrofoam for densifying and is anticipated to reach 1,800 tons. “Resource Recovery Center tons of brush collected” is accepted only at their Hornsby Bend location, which turns the brush into a compost material called Dillo Dirt with the help of Austin Water. “Household waste operations tons recycled/reused” is estimated to hit 400 tons and includes materials from the Austin paint program and other household items, such as labeled chemical cleaning products, that people have no further use for but want to avoid wasting.

Within the tons composted category, “tons of curbside compost collected” is the leading subcategory with an estimated 44,622 tons to be collected in FY 2025.

“Tons of curbside bulk recycled” is anticipated to reach 255 tons and includes “materials that are dropped off to the Resource Drop-Off Center as well as materials that we bring on our own trucks … most commonly, tires. You also see scrap metal, televisions, and other electrical materials,” said Horton. “Tons of curbside textiles” collected come mostly from retailers and the total is estimated to hit 40 tons. “Tons of carts recycled” refers to the waste receptacles themselves and will likely accumulate 125 tons.

Austin’s compost processing contract was pulled from the December City Council agenda and the current contract will be effective through late February. The contracting process involves soliciting bids from outside companies to perform compost collection for the city. Organics by Gosh and Texas Disposal Systems both submitted bids for the new contract, with a large discrepancy between each company’s quoted price per ton and both significantly over the prior contracted price. Organics by Gosh currently holds the contract with the city. However, their bid to renew doubled in price. These budgetary concerns caused the process to stall.

Austin Resource Recovery is “in the process of executing an emergency extension to the existing agreement. That emergency extension is set to last six months. During that six months, we intend to use that time to put out a new procurement. … There will be some substantial changes to address the concerns that had arisen previously,” Horton said.

The Zero Waste Advisory Commission expects to hear from Austin’s Financial Services Department at one of their upcoming meetings on the composting issue to answer questions about the original contracting process.

Photo by Bernard Dejean, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

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