Clearwater Launches Recycling Dashboard To Help Regain Public Trust

CLEARWATER, FL — In the wake of the discovery that Clearwater household and commercial recycling was going to the Pinellas County incinerator instead of the city's recycling contractor, the city has launched a new website with a recycling dashboard for full transparency.

The recycling dashboard shows residents how much waste is being recycled every month as well as the contamination rate of the city's recycled waste.

The move comes after city officials confessed in January that they'd just discovered the recyclables collected from homes and businesses hadn't been processed for the past five months.

City Manager Jennifer Poirrier said city leaders weren't aware of the problem until October when residents began complaining on social media that their recyclables were either piling up or were being sent to the Pinellas County Waste-to-Energy plant along with garbage that couldn't be recycled.

Related: Clearwater Officials Apologize To Residents For Recycling Meltdown

When city officials questioned the city's solid waste department about the complaints, Poirrier said they were assured by Assistant Solid Waste Director Bryant Johnson that the city's recyclables were being properly processed.

But in November, the city received a letter from its recycling contractor, Waste Management Waste Disposal & Recycling, announcing that the company was suspending its contract with Clearwater because the city hadn't delivered recyclables to Waste Management's Ybor City recycling facility since June.

When Poirrier questioned Johnson again, he said recyclables weren't being taken to the recycling facility due to staffing issues and equipment failures. He ultimately resigned.

To resolve the problem temporarily, interim Solid Waste Director Micah Maxwell proposed at the Feb. 13 city council workshop that the city temporarily contract with Waste Connections of Florida, based in St. Petersburg, to handle the city's recycling.

In the meantime, the city has hired a consultant to secure a long-term recycling contract that will preferably include revenue sharing, so the city receives some proceeds from its recyclables. The short-term contract with Waste Connections does not include revenue sharing.

The council also discussed whether to give residents and businesses refunds on their recycling disposal fees for the months of July through the end of December.

Maxwell said the city could opt to give a full refund of fees or a partial refund representing the cost difference between recycling waste and disposing of it at the county's waste-to-energy plant.

He said a partial refund would amount to $4.66 per customer for a total of $177,056 for the six months that recyclables weren't taken to Waste Management. A full credit would amount to $20.22 per customer for a total of $1.123 million.

Additionally, Clearwater was providing recycling services for the town of Belleair and the city of Safety Harbor. He said Safety Harbor would receive a partial refund of $22,343 or a full refund of $62,925 and Belleair would receive a partial refund of $5,002 or a full refund of $64,978.

Initially, council member Lina Teixeira said she was in favor of giving full credit to customers who were paying for recycling they never received.

"It was our error for six months. I understand it's a big cost," she said. "But the consensus of the residents I've spoken to is they feel they've lost their trust in the city, and they want full credit."

Council member Kathleen Beckman agreed.

"There's a price to pay for a colossal error," she said. "Let's make it right and move on."

"It's a very complicated issue, but we did screw up," said council member David Allbritton. "I think we owe our customers a refund. Let's go ahead and restore our public trust from here on by doing the best we can."

However, news from Poirrier prompted the council to delay a decision on refunds.

When she looked into the matter further, Poirrier said she learned that the city's recycling problems may have been going on for years.

The possible extent of the problem prompted the FBI to offer its help investigating the city's recycling woes, an offer Poirrier said she welcomed, directing city staff to put together documents and data for the FBI to review.

If the review uncovers a problem dating back years, Belleair, Safety Harbor and city customers could be owed a much larger refund.

The city council members opted to table the matter of refunds until they have more information.

Belleair and Safety Harbor are no longer using Clearwater's recycling services.

Clearwater customers interested in keeping track of the city's recyclables can subscribe to updates at the bottom of the new recycling dashboard website.

According to the dashboard, in April the city collected 692.17 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to recycling processor, Waste Connections. Of those 692.17 tons of recycling, 670.86 tons (or 96.9 percent) was accepted and processed. The amount that was rejected due to contamination was 21.31 tons (or 3.1 percent.)