Villagers probably feel “green” when they put their recycling bags at the end of the driveway, so they would be surprised to learn that 80 percent of that material is going into the landfill.
It’s part of the sobering reality of what has happened with the collapse of the worldwide recycling market. That collapse came when China said “no thanks” to accepting America’s tomato-stained cardboard pizza boxes and jars with the residue of leftover food products.
The North Sumter County Utility Dependent District at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23 at Savannah Center will hold its third workshop on the future of solid waste management in The Villages.
Villagers are encouraged to attend the workshop.
This is the third in a series of workshops put on by NSCUDD, the Villager-run entity which oversees trash collection in Community Development Districts 1 through 11. Waste collected by Jacobs in those areas of The Villages is taken to a landfill in Chesser Island, Ga. A representative from Jacobs has warned that tipping fees at landfills are expected to rise dramatically.
NSCUDD recently voted to raise its monthly household assessment for trash collection in The Villages from $17.90 to $19.38 for 2020.
Recyclables from The Villages are taken to a Materials Recovery Facility (MFR) in Tampa, where they are sorted. Recyclables currently are processed at $28.35 per ton in The Villages. The sorting is labor intensive and growing more costly. And the reality is that most of the material is going back to the landfill.
In the most recent solid waste workshop, Villagers utilized electronic survey clickers to respond to various questions about trash collection and recycling. The interactive survey results can be viewed in the PowerPoint presentation at this link: NSCUDD Solid Waste and Recycling Workshop
