M Focus on: Waste & Recycling
Starkville launches custom recycling program By JANET PATTERSON | The Municipal
Municipal recycling programs have had a tough time lately. Markets like China and Malaysia, where recyclables were being sent, found that their own citizenries were generating enough recycled material to satisfy their expanding manufacturing economy.
Think Green Starkville is part of the community’s effort to reduce its carbon footprint. (Photo provided by Starkville, Miss.)
28 THE MUNICIPAL | AUGUST 2021
The cost of recycling was not paying municipalities to recycle. Instead, cities were paying to send their recycled bottles, cans and paper away. And then came the pandemic. Trash and recycling pickup slowed dramatically when public works departments found themselves understaffed because of employees who became ill or had to quarantine because of a sick family member. Recycling troubles hit Starkville, Miss., squarely in the pocketbook last year when its contract with Waste Management to haul collected recyclables to nearby Tupelo rose from about $40,000 to $60,000, and revenues from those recycled materials totaled only about $24,000. Located in eastern Mississippi, Starkville was founded in 1831 as Boardtown because of a sawmill operation there. Later it was renamed to honor John Stark, a general in the American Revolution. The city of just under 26,000 residents is also home to Mississippi State University, a land grant college started in 1878. “We are attempting to be mindful of our carbon footprint,” Starkville Mayor Lynn Spruill said. The Waste Management recycling program allowed people to place bottles, cans, plastics and other recyclables in green bags and later bins at curbside for pickup. The service was free to city residents.
