The demise of recycling

Getting people to recycle is a tough enough battle without individuals creating road blocks which limit its success.  The recent decision by Tangipahoa Parish President, Robby Miller, to close recycle drop off sites in Roseland and Hammond will seriously impede recycling efforts in the areas surrounding those closed sites.

By his order a large portion of Tangipahoa recyclers will now have to travel some 25 or more miles to drop off their recycle waste.  That will probably mean that many will no longer recycle.  While it was bad enough that rural parish residents were never afforded the luxury of curbside recycling services, at a minimum of once per month, at least we had the ability of a short drive twice per month at convenient drop off auxiliary locations.

After first trying to convince residents that the closures would benefit them by claiming better access due to extended drop off hours, Mr. Miller retreated and stated that the closures save the parish money.  This is due to the fact that now the parish won’t have to cover the cost of transporting the recyclables from the Hammond and Roseland drop off sites to the Independence land fill site.  However, no supporting cost saving data was presented as to how much this action saved.

Furthermore, the cost of running these satellite locations was already included as part of the parish’s operating budget for the present fiscal year, so it wasn’t necessary to close these locations at this point in time.

The 2020 Tangipahoa Operating budget lists $13 million as the departmental expenditures from the General  Fund.   I am sure the cost of transporting the recyclables from the Hammond and Roseland auxiliary sites to Independence doesn’t cost any more than one percent of that amount, if even that much.  But since no figures were presented to the public with the closure decision no one knows exactly how much we are saving vs sacrificing the environment.

Sadly, Tangipahoa Parish joins others, nationwide, in the notion that recycling is no longer a priority or worth the effort.  The parish president should have been upfront with his support of that belief from the very beginning instead of initiating an end around game which will result the curtailment of parish recycling services all together after the auxiliary sites closures result in reduced use of the inconvenient Independence landfill facility.  He will then be finally able to blame it on the public and curtail the entire recycling service “due to a lack of recycling interest by the public.”