Greening Austin Daily

Recycling in Austin

17th February, 2010 - Posted by carsi - 3 Comments

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As you probably know, Austin provides single stream curbside recycling for residential homes. This is fantastic for people who live in residential areas because all you need to do is just load up your recycling bin with all the items that are recyclable by the city and put it out on the curb. No separating, no driving to drop it off. So easy. But what if you live in an apartment?

Currently, the recycling policy of the city of Austin requires multi-family dwellings (such as apartment and condo complexes) with 100+ units to provide recycling for four or more of the following materials: aluminum cans, tin/steel cans, glass containers, plastic bottles, newspaper, cardboard, kraft paper bags, and home office paper. New residents must be informed about the recycling program, and residents must be re-educated about the program at least once a year. Also, adequate outdoor collection containers are required.

Complexes with less than 100 units currently do not have to provide any recycling services. If this is your situation, check out Ecology Action, a recycling drop-off center downtown that recycles everything the city does and more.

The Recycling Ordinance Reform Subcommittee is currently working on recommendations to change the recycling requirements to apply to more multi-family communities and to require recycling services for more materials. Although this change seems like a step in the right direction, at the most recent Recycling Ordinance Reform meeting, there were no discussions of having the city provide single stream recycling for complexes, as they do for single family homes. It looks like the financial burden of providing recycling services to apartments and condos will remain with the owners of those complexes. We’ll keep an eye out for any changes to the ordinance.

For now, if you find that your apartment or condo complex is not complying with any of the ordinance requirements, contact Keith Bible of Solid Waste Services at (512) 974-6492 or by email. His fax number is (512) 974-9048. Enforcement of the ordinance is mostly complaint-driven, so if you see something that isn’t right, speak up and get it changed!