Darlene,
You wrote, in part: "I took my very full pickup of recyclables over to the plant as usual. When I pulled in, the worker at the plant told me that they were no longer taking the plastic! They told me that the company(s?) they sold the plastic to were no longer buying it from them."
I can understand your frustration with the changing nature of recycling options, particularly with respect to plastics. While recycling services are steadily growing across the country and in Texas, convenient access to processing operations is less certain in sparcely populated areas of the state. In a way, you're fortunate that the folks at Conroe Recycling took up the challenge to serve a relatively small but unserved population several years ago.
Unfortunately, their high labor costs for processing the plastics and relatively low price paid to them by a Houston processor forced them to discontinue handling plastics. I hope to help them find other outlets for plastics but it may be a longshot.
>From your letter, it's obvious that you want to do all you can. I suggest, if you haven't already, that you work on expanding the recycling fever of your neighbors to include waste prevention and buying recycled-content products, both of which are at least as important as recovery. Of course, the easiest waste prevention measure is using yard trimmings at home. Changing buying habits can also prevent waste as well as complete the recycling circle, as you know I'm sure. If you want more resources on these issues, please contact me. Good luck and thanks for being a driving force.
(By the way, our state's annual recycling conference will be in Houston this year in mid-October. For more information, visit: TexasRecyclingSummit.com)
W. Woody Raine
Recycling Market Specialist
Texas Natural Resource Conservation Commisison
PO Box 13087 MC112
Austin, Texas 78711-3087
512-239-6316
fax: 512-239-6763
wraine@tnrcc.state.tx.us
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