Recycling set to end in Starkville Oct. 1

Starkville residents may soon be without a recycling service after the Board of Aldermen voted Tuesday to indefinitely suspend the city’s recycling program due to increased costs.

In Tuesday’s board meeting, Mayor Lynn Spruill said the cost to continue with the recycling program was too high; however, she said the city was discussing the possibility of partnering with Mississippi State University to bring its campus recycling program to Starkville residents in some form.

“On the agenda for consent is to suspend the current recycling program. It’s indefinite and due to increased costs,” she said. “But, we are also exploring an opportunity to join with MSU - it has a robust recycling program - to attempt to efficiently and effectively do a better job than we have been able to do through our current program.”

Alderwoman Sandra Sistrunk said the potential part

nership would hopefully allow the city to offer an affordable recycling program, which wouldn’t require the city to absorb large costs or pass additional expenses onto residents.

“The cost will be significantly lower and something that we can maybe make available at no charge, no additional charge,” she said.

Sistrunk said the city is also working with Starkville Utilities to remove the $2 recycling charge from participating residents’ bills during the October billing cycle. With the billing cycles, she said it can sometimes take time for changes to take effect, and urged any resident with a concern about recycling charges on their bills after Oct. 1 to call Starkville Utilities.

“There may be somebody who gets a bill and continues to have a recycling charge after October 1,” she said. “If that’s a grievous error and you want us to correct it, if you would just contact the utilities department, 323-3133, contact the utilities department, and they will, I’m sure, happily put a credit on your account for the two dollars.”

Alderman Hamp Beatty said his concern was the increased amount of plastic and aluminum that would

be going into the landfill. Plastic and aluminum do not biodegrade quickly and can be present for several hundred years. In the partnership discussions with MSU, he said he would be looking for options to recycle plastics, aluminum and other non-biodegradable debris.

While the city is continuing to explore the idea of a partnership recycling program, Spruill said the issue on Tuesday’s agenda was to indefinitely suspend the city’s recycling.

“It is ongoing. We are looking at it,” she said. “But for the purposes of our existing program, this is to suspend that indefinitely.”