ARR director says Austin needs more fiber in its recycling

In Austin Resource Recovery director Bob Gedert’s report to the Zero Waste Advisory Committee on Wednesday night, he noted that waste composition studies indicate 40 to 45 percent of the city’s recycling materials are glass or trash. Gedert said, “I don’t think we’re capturing as much paper and paper fiber from the households as what we could, and if the paper fiber was at its proper level of capture in the blue carts, the percentage of glass would be lower. I don’t think the glass numbers are up there because we’re heavier drinkers. I think that’s (just) the common explanation.” Austin was recently named one of the country’s heaviest drinking cities in a national survey.