According to San Antonio-based KSAT 12, a local recycling center is facing scrutiny from the city for multiple violations since its relocation.
“The recycling plant used to be at a location on South Cross Boulevard,” Michael Shannon, assistant director of the Development Services Department, told the news station. “They had some code violations to the extent that we had to shut them down. They weren’t zoned properly. They weren’t following city rules.”
Residents have noted the heavy presence of dust and paper emptied from the facility reaching as far as I-35. According to Shannon, many of these violations can be rectified by taking proper care of the property.
“The other violations are rodents, rats. In the middle of the night, we have rats come across the street,” Rose Hill, Government Hill Neighborhood Association president, told the station. “These are senior people. They need help. This is not the quality of life we want people to have.”
Additionally, an inspection found that Ascent had been illegally recycling metal in January and February, according to the city.
“When we talked to them about moving to this other location on Seguin Street, we told them they could do their cardboard recycling but don’t do metal recycling,” Shannon said, according to the article. “They understood that. We gave it to them in writing, and they still violated that.”
A court hearing for these violations is scheduled for August. Subsequent failure to comply will lead to the facility’s closure, according to the article.
“The neighborhood association supports all businesses, but when you have a business come in like this, that’s not willing to work with the residents and is making their quality of these elderly people’s lives miserable, we’re not OK with that,” Hill told the station.
