JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – A town hall meeting to discuss concerns over the ongoing suspension of curbside recycling in Jacksonville will take place Monday night.
This week marks four months since the city suspended the service. Trash has been piling up since curbside pickup was canceled back in October.
Jacksonville temporarily suspended curbside recycling to allow contract and city haulers to catch up on garbage services.
The city is now looking at options including the possibility of doing away with the entire $152 garbage fee. If the fee is removed the city would then pay all garbage pickup costs out of its regular budget.
As for refunding the portion of that fee that actually pays for recycling lid waste officials told News4Jax back in October that is not going to happen.
Mayor Lenny Curry said he is exploring all options at this point.
“Discussion is happening,” Curry said. “I don’t know where we are going to end up at this point. I want recycling back as much as anybody.”
Curry told News4JAX that it is a day-to-day monitored situation, but some in Jacksonville are not happy with how slow-moving the process has been.
Fletcher High School students create a petition on Change.org calling for the city to bring back curbside recycling. As of Monday morning, the petition is less than 300 signatures away from its goal of 2,500 signatures.
There’s still no confirmation on whether recycling will resume.
The meeting starts at 6:45 p.m. at the West Branch Library. It is open to the public.