Curbside recycling has always been a contentious issue in St. Petersburg.
For more than a decade, neighborhood activists and city leaders have clashed over its merits. City councils have overwhelmingly squashed proposals; opposition candidates have run campaigns based on the issue. While most Tampa Bay municipalities have embraced curbside recycling, St. Pete city leaders have consistently argued it is inefficient and too costly. The environmental damage caused by large diesel trucks criss-crossing the city far outweighs the benefits of recycling, they say.
"The mayor feels we have a very viable system now," says Bill Sundstrom, the city's sanitation coordinator. "The city of St. Petersburg has always had a successful drop-off program. A curbside program does not automatically mean higher recycling rates."
But local environmentalists have publicly wondered how St. Pete could call itself a "green city" when it was the largest Florida city without a curbside recycling program.
"The Green Cities [Initiative] was — among many things — also intended to raise the bar of expectations and create leverage to push for curbside recycling," says Darden Rice, a former Sierra Club director who helped push for St. Pete's Green City designation. "It was never meant to give a pass to the city or to provide cover for their embarrassing lack of policy and leadership on this issue."
But one young entrepreneur could become St. Pete's environmental peacemaker. Greg Foster, a University of South Florida alum and Shore Acres resident, sees the city's lack of curbside recycling as an excellent "green" opportunity — as in greenbacks.
"I talk to people that have moved here, and all of them are shocked we don't recycle," says Foster, 22. "I thought someone should do it, and that somebody should be me."
Enter St. Pete Recycling Solutions, a subscriber-based recycling program that Foster rolls out on Jan. 1. Under his plan, each participating household receives two 18-gallon bins for newspaper, glass, plastic and aluminum waste. Once a week, Foster or one of his four employees collects the recyclables and transports them to a Clearwater recycling center. Foster is paid $15 a month; you get a clear conscience.
"At some point our landfill is going to fill up," Foster says. "It doesn't make sense — we're screwing up the planet. So is $15 enough to make a true difference?"
Because Foster only works with those serious about recycling, he says St. Pete Recycling Solutions doesn't fall into the same traps as a city-subsidized program.
"That's why a private business makes sense," he says. "It alleviates the burden on the city. This solves the issue and brings people together."
Foster may be right. At first glance, both sides of the debate seem keen on the idea. Foster met with city officials — including Sundstrom and Mayor Baker — earlier this year, and after obtaining the necessary permits and insurance, they gave him the go-ahead. He also met with Rice, and although she would still like to see curbside recycling citywide, she says Foster's business could finally budge the city into action.
"Theoretically, you could get the city to privatize recycling," she says. "I'm not a big fan of privatization, but I think looking at the budget this year, we have to get a little creative."
That's exactly what Foster is hoping for.
"Let's start small and see how far it will go," he says, adding over 60 residents have signed up from the city's northeast and southeast neighborhoods. (He's limiting his services to residents east of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard for now.)
"The long-term game plan is to be able to do this so efficiently that this could be the business for the entire city," he says. "At the end of the day, if I'm the guy that lights the match to get the city into recycling … that's all I want to be known for."
For more information on St. Pete Recycling Solutions, contact Greg Foster at 727-452-5278 or oursprs.com.
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This article appears in Dec 12-18, 2007.