If recycling isn’t on the to-do list of Fort Worth residents now, it will be. Residents can expect recycling to become an even greater part of their daily lives as the city looks to buy more time for its landfill. If nothing is done to preserve space, the landfill in far southeast Fort Worth will run out of room in a little more than two decades, according to a recent report.
Some of the ideas are simple, like enforcing bulk and brush separation for curbside collection so that the brush can always be recycled, and asking people to separate their glass and bringing it to drop off locations. Another recommendation is to not allow grass clippings in the landfill, which would save tens of thousands of tons of waste, the report said.
And following in the footsteps of several large cities, the city will consider recycling food scraps. It would first conduct a pilot program to work out logistics, but residents would be asked to save food scraps, either in compost bags or plastic containers, which would be collected and used to make fertilizer.
“We haven’t selected the neighborhood or how it’s going to get collected,” said Brandon Bennett, the city’s code compliance director, the department that oversees solid waste services. “This is juicy stuff. You don’t want to be leaking chicken grease down the street.”
Moreover, access to recycling at public venues and at apartment communities needs to be encouraged, and residents should be allowed to recycle old clothes at the curbside.
All this is coming because city officials are concerned that the population growth rate, combined with an increase in construction and demolition materials being brought to the landfill, will drag down its life faster than they want.
Fort Worth is the fastest-growing big city in the country. The population grew 29 percent since 2006, to 854,113. It is expected to become the nation’s 12th-largest city by 2019.
In 2011, estimates were that it would take 50 years for the landfill to run out of space. It now stands about about 22 years, said a consultant’s report, Rethinking Waste For a Green Fort Worth, a 20-year solid waste management plan that offers dozens of recommendations.
“We’re not in a crisis. We want to avoid a crisis,” Bennett said. “It is to some degree a wake-up call for those who are not participating in the recycling program, or those who do and could recycle more, because the better job we do at recycling, the longer the life of the landfill.”
That can be done by encouraging customers to use smaller garbage carts and larger recycling carts, the report said.
Recycling Incentives
Recycling will impact peoples’ pocketbooks, Bennett said. “When we look at a rate increase, we’re looking at a way to reward those that recycle more,” he said. “For those who recycle less, they would pay a higher premium for filling up the landfill quicker. If we reward those that recycle more then you’re going to see our recycle rate go up.”
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