The City of Jacksonville is working on two separate issues when it comes to recycling, as well as a citywide contract for a garbage service. City Clerk Skip Bradshaw says that the city is currently working on an agreement with BLH Computers for the disposal of surplus computer monitors and televisions by the city’s residents: “This contract is so that people can take their TVs [that break down] as they need to rather than storing them until June when we have the citywide clean up. That way they can take them directly to BLH, and then, on a monthly basis the city will get an invoice that will tell us the address of the people who have recycled their TV or computer monitor. It won’t give us their names, but it will give us an address and what they turned in. Then, the city pays for that on a monthly basis.”
The city was billed $19,000 during this year’s citywide cleanup just for the disposal of old televisions and computer monitors, with the majority of the bill going towards fuel costs and manpower for the tv recycling program. The hope is with the TV/Monitor Recycling Program under direct management by BLH that it will eliminate or reduce most of those costs, causing billing to the city to go down.
Ward Two Alderwoman Lori Large-Oldenettel noted during the July 25th City Council meeting that by having the year-long drop off agreement, people would no longer have to clutter up their residence with the junk TVs and/or computer monitors. She also said it would reduce the risk of fly dumping around the city’s outskirts. Bradshaw says there are some rules to the TV/Monitor recycling program. Residents will only be allowed to turn in two TVs/monitors per year per household: “This year will be a little bit different. Residents will still be allowed to turn in 2 from now until the end of the year. Then, they will have 2 for all of next year – 2023. The program is for Jacksonville residents only.”