PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — If you live in Clearwater and recycle, turns out nothing you’ve sorted in the last six months has been recycled. It's all just thrown out with the regular garbage.
Recycling for the city comes to the Solid Waste Plant in Clearwater, where it's supposed to be sorted and taken to a recycling vendor in Tampa, but that hasn’t been happening.
City officials say they learned of the problem after concerned residents posted to social media.
The city manager's office says they asked about the complaints, and Bryant Johnson with the solid waste department assured them that recyclables were being properly processed.
However, after investigating further, the city learned nothing had been recycled since June.
On Monday, Johnson resigned from his role with the city.
"For residents, this has to be disheartening. They’ve been doing their part by sorting and rinsing things and doing what they believed was right for the environment and the city has not done its part and that’s not fair to the residents," said Joelle Castelli, city of Clearwater spokesperson.
The city is still investigating the exact reason why the recycling was taken to the Pinellas County Solid Waste Disposal Complex and burned as waste to energy with the rest of the garbage instead of being recycled.
Clearwater resident Tony Fantilli who recycles regularly, says he’s not happy to hear it.
"I’d have to say I'm disappointed because it was a dropped ball, and if it was intentional, that’s just not OK," said Fantilli.
Cities across the nation have been struggling to find recycling solutions ever since China stopped buying recycled materials from the U.S. in 2017.
The city of Clearwater says now they’re having to pay a vendor to take their recyclables.
Paying $150 a ton, when before, they only paid $67 a ton and had profit sharing.
City officials say they are looking at reimbursement options for those who paid for recycling since June.
But for now, they’re encouraging people to still sort recycling because they are able to recycle some of it.
"We’re recycling as much as we can with them currently and we’re looking for a more long-term solution with another vendor," said Castelli.
