TO: Honorable Mayor & Members of the North Port Commission
FROM: Peter D. Lear, CPA, CGMA, City Manager
TITLE: Utilize City property located at 5455 Pan American Boulevard (Tract D, 43rd Addition,) to develop and operate a recycling center for the transfer of recyclable material to a processor.
Recommended Action
Approval to utilize City property located at 5455 Pan American Boulevard (Tract D, 43rd Addition,) to develop and operate a recycling center for the transfer of recyclable material to a processor.
Background Information
The City of North Port Solid Waste District has utilized the Sarasota County Jackson Road Transfer Station in Venice, Florida, for the past 20 years. During this time, the processor, Resource Recovery Systems, LLC also known as Republic Services, has managed all the transfer, processing and marketing of the collected recycling material within the City.
In February 2013, China implemented a program known as "Operation Green Fence" which was an aggressive inspection effort aimed at curtailing the amount of contaminated recyclables and waste that was being sent to China. As such, China imposed very strict contamination laws and will no longer accept poorly sorted or dirty shipments of recyclable material from foreign export. Recycling revenue throughout the world has decreased, causing processing fees to increase with no market share. It is estimated that more than 800,000 tons of recyclables have been rejected by China since February 2018. In the United States, this has resulted in recycling becoming a waste with single stream recycling (all in one container). Unfortunately, the perception among many people throughout the United States is that everything is recyclable.
Single stream recycling has not aided the recycling market due to high contamination rates. It has, however, made recycling easier for the resident, but more difficult for the processor and marketing brokers throughout the world to sell the material. Single st...
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