Clearwater, Fla. to Update Locals on Past Recycling Issues, Fees

A city council work session in Clearwater, Fl. is set to take place this week, which locals are hoping will shed some light on the city’s previous recycling issues.

Earlier this year, the city of Clearwater revealed that the city’s recycling wasn’t going to the correct location. The recycling should have been going to Waste Management, however, all the city’s recyclables ended up at the Pinellas County Solid Waste Disposal Complex with all the other solid waste. While this was happening, residents were still billed recycling fees.

“It really came to light in the last six months, before January 1st, that we hadn’t been recycling anything,” said Joelle Castelli, spokesperson for the City of Clearwater. “Prior to that, it looked like our processing was down significantly, but we were still recycling about a third.”

Monday’s council will update locals on the recycling situation for Clearwater and will discuss the refunding of recycling fees to locals which would cost the city more than $1 million.

“Trust is something that is hard to restore once you lose it,” said Castelli. “All we can do at this point is tell residents, ‘Here’s where we currently are, here’s what we’ve unfolded, and here’s what we plan to do in the future.'”

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