City Council members will have to decide today whether to cancel a contract with Simple Recycling, a small business that invested a significant amount of money and hired employees to bring a new recycling service to the city. If they do not cancel the contract, several nonprofits say, curbside recycling will damage their businesses and their […]
Austin Resource Recovery
Formerly Solid Waste Services. The department in charge of handling solid waste disposal, recycling, and curbside composting for the City of Austin.
Posted inEnvironment
Study reveals why some Austinites don’t recycle
Austin has declared that it will be a zero-waste city by 2040. But lack of progress toward that goal over the last five years has prompted the city to call in a team of researchers to better understand why Austinites don’t recycle. The city set a goal of sending only 10 percent of its waste […]
Posted inReporters' Notebook
Reporter’s notebook: Old endings, new beginnings
Love actually… Bob Gedert, who has served as director of Austin’s Resource Recovery Department since 2010, is retiring for love. Following his final appearance before City Council on Thursday, Gedert was standing outside Council chambers when the Austin Monitor caught up with him. He said he was moving to Cincinnati and would become a consultant […]
Posted inResources
New city contract: ‘death knell’ for private dumpster services?
Bob Gregory, CEO of Texas Disposal Systems, and his son Adam Gregory sounded the alarm at Monday’s Electric Utility Commission meeting concerning the pending authorization of a 36-month city contract with Republic Services, or another qualified bidder, to provide dumpster services for city facilities and special events. The contract came before the commission because Austin […]
Posted inResources
Push to expand city composting continues
Austin has made major progress in its efforts to reduce the amount of trash it sends to landfills, but the city will have to make a big change if it wants to realize the ambitious goals it has set through its Zero Waste initiative. Current recycling efforts have succeeded in diverting 43 percent of the […]
Posted inParks
Why don’t Austin parks have recycling bins?
All commercial properties in Austin will be required by October of next year to have on-site recycling containers, but the same is not true of all properties owned by the government that put the requirement in place. The Parks and Recreation Department, the city agency one might expect to embrace green living most fervently, has […]
Posted inResources
What’s up with Austin’s recycling?
“Would you like to have a little Coke?” asks Kathy Bell Hargrave, cracking open a can of soda in her daughter’s kitchen. Some things we do in life without giving them a second thought, but when we stop to think about them we realize they raise a lot of questions. This is one of those […]
Posted inEnvironment
Commission votes to clean up ‘East Austin’s Mount Bonnell’
In a move some residents and commissioners referred to as symbolic, the Environmental Commission voted to clean up a site that has been called the Mount Bonnell of East Austin. The La Loma trail and Red Bluff site, located behind the city-owned facility at 6301 Harold Court, has been used for illegal dumping for over […]
Posted inResources
Some on Council want to privatize solid waste system
City Council Member Don Zimmerman wants to talk trash with his dais peers and is actively looking for two others who will support his proposal to privatize the city’s solid waste collection service. All other Council members at Monday’s Public Utilities Committee meeting curbed their enthusiasm for the idea, save for Council Member Ellen Troxclair, […]
Posted inCity Council
Council OKs resolution encouraging high wages for green-biz hub
City Council approved a resolution Thursday prodding companies that seek to participate in a soon-to-be-constructed hub for green businesses to pay good wages and respect the right of workers to unionize. The measure, introduced by Council Member Greg Casar, was criticized by opponents for being sprung on Council without prior public input from citizens or […]
Posted inCity Hall
No third-party audit likely for Resource Recovery
Members of the City Council Audit and Finance Committee declined Monday to endorse a recommendation from the Zero Waste Advisory Commission that the city hire an independent third party to audit Austin Resource Recovery. However, they did endorse a recommendation from ZWAC that the new Office of Performance Management prioritize a performance and budget review […]
Posted inRadio
Austin Monitor Radio: Austin Resource Recovery budget concerns
Austin Monitor publisher Mike Kanin sits down first with Austin Resource Recovery director Bob Gedert to discuss budget concerns raised by the city’s Zero Waste Advisory Commission (ZAWC). Then Kanin sits with Zero Waste Advisory Commission (ZWAC) chair Gerry Acuna and former chair Rick Cofer to discuss those same issues. Sponsored by Austin Water. Show […]