Trash is piled next to city recycling cans off Ann Street in Ann Arbor on Wednesday, May 11 2022.

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The City of Mobile will soon expand its recycling opportunities for citizens.

The city on Tuesday announced that it received a grant from the Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) to add a third recycling drop-off site, increase education about recycling and conduct a feasibility study for more recycling services in Mobile County.

Mobile Chief Resilience Officer Casi Callaway said that the city will analyze zip code data collected at the two current city recycling drop-off sites to determine the best location for a third site. Callaway said that the southwest area of the city would be a plausible location since that area is far away from the two city recycling drop-off sites and the county recycling center.

Additionally, the grant money provides for education on recycling services and a feasibility study to determine what additional recycling services, such as curbside recycling, the city could provide. Callaway said that Mobile is hoping to work with other cities in the county on both initiatives, in order to increase recycling county-wide.

“How else can we expand recycling in the community?” Callaway said. By including the county in these efforts, she said, costs for future recycling initiatives may be reduced.

Currently, Mobile residents can take their recycling to three public recycling sites. There are two city-run drop-off sites, one in Langan Park across from the Museum of Art and one behind Mobile Police Headquarters in Midtown. Mobile County operates a recycling center on Hitt Road in West Mobile that residents can take their recycling to, but they have to sort recycling themselves. The city facilities are single-stream, meaning all recyclables (cardboard, paper, glass) can be sent to the processing facility together.

Mobile residents can also pay a private recycling service to collect recyclables from their home. One private recycling provider, Earth Resources, has faced financial difficulties recently, due to an alleged scam and a hefty fine from ADEM. Ransom Ministries in Chickasaw runs an electronics recycling program, and the Home Depot in West Mobile will accept some recyclables, including batteries.

The city of Mobile sends its recycling to Emerald Coast Utilities Authority (ECUA) in Pensacola to be processed. Earlier this month, however, ECUA had to temporarily shut down its facility due to a machinery breakdown. As a result, recycling from Mobile is being processed at a facility in Louisiana, Callaway said, which means that glass can no longer be recycled because of the high cost of transportation. When ECUA re-opens its facility, glass will be collected again, she said.

Callaway says that a goal of hers is to bring curbside recycling to Mobile. However, creating curbside recycling infrastructure would cost the city, which means that residents will have to pay for it. Currently, Mobile residents do not pay for garbage and trash pickup. The purpose of the feasibility study would be to determine the cost of bringing curbside recycling to the county, she said.

Recycling is popular with Mobile residents. Last fall, the city partnered with the University of South Alabama to conduct a survey on interest in recycling in the city. Around 70% of the people they surveyed thought recycling was “very important,” and an additional 20% thought it was “somewhat important.” In addition, over half of the people surveyed said they required some household products. The two city recycling sites, which opened during Mayor Sandy Stimpson’s first term, are very popular with residents.

The city will receive $340,000 from ADEM on October 1, the start of the new fiscal year. When the third drop-off site will open is unclear, Callaway said, because it will take several months to set the site up after a location has been determined.

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