Recycling Program Hampered By Company Policies

The recycling program in Maryville, Tenn., is having trouble because of changes made by Spectra, the company that processes the city's recyclables.

When the recycling program began in the early 1970s, the city collected recyclables like plastic and glass in trailers located at three sites around town.

City employees took the trailers to the Tennessee Vocational Training Center in Blount Industrial Park, where the materials were processed for sale.

Four years ago the training center got out of the business. A city survey revealed 60 percent of the people doing the recycling lived in the county, so the city asked Blount County to contribute toward the program.

Blount County supplied the building and contracted with Spectra to process the recyclables.

At first, the city of Maryville dropped off items an average of once every five days. However, Spectra now allows recyclable trailer drop-offs only once every seven days.

Another problem is that Spectra only accepts certain items on certain days.

That is causing the trailers to become so full that citizens who bring in recyclables have no place to drop them off. They either place the materials outside the trailers or take the items away with them.

``The schedule is our main problem,'' said Bill Bryant, solid waste superintendent of the Public Works Department. ``It looks like we're not doing our job.''

Citizens have been complaining to Maryville City Council members and city staffers.

At a recent council work session, Maryville City Manager Gary Hensley said that a year ago the city and county had the opportunity to get another operator that would do the work for the same price or less that is being charged now. The county renewed the contract with Spectra.

Now the city, the biggest supplier of recyclables to Spectra, has no leverage to influence the operation of the recyclable center because the Spectra contract is with the county, Hensley said.

While recycling costs money, ``citizen surveys show they are willing to pay to preserve the environment,'' he said.

The city of Maryville and Blount County asked the Municipal Technical Advisory Service (MTAS) and the County Technical Advisory Service (CTAS) at the University of Tennessee to do a study of solid-waste disposal, including recycling.

The study recommended the recycling program be moved to the landfill and be operated by landfill employees, Whaley said.

``That makes a lot of sense. We might even pick up items that are going into the landfill,'' he said.

The processing center would be moved to the landfill and the city of Maryville would take the recycling trailers down there instead of the site at Blount Industrial Park.

The Blount County Solid Waste Authority has formed a committee to look at that study, Whaley said. The council advised city employees to take up the scheduling problem with that authority.