After years of planning聽and nine months of construction, Emerald Coast Utilities Authority’s聽long-awaited, state-of-the-art,聽$10.6聽million聽recycling facility is complete. On Monday, the ECUA board and Escambia County Board of County Commissioners held a kick-off ceremony to mark the opening of the 53,460-square-foot Interim Material Recycling Facility聽at聽13009 Beulah Road. The event celebrated the completion of the IMRF and the successful partnership between ECUA and Escambia County.
“Building this partnership has been instrumental in eliminating our reliance on outside contractors for the processing of this region’s recycling effort,” said Steve Sorrell, executive director of ECUA. “Now we can focus on what’s really important 鈥� keeping recyclable material out of the landfills and putting them to good use again.”
The new聽IMRF聽is聽adjacent to聽the Escambia County Perdido Landfill, where聽recyclable聽materials from the county have been taken since mid-December聽when ECUA terminated their recycling program.
ECUA has utilized three privately operated sectors since initiating the curbside recycling program in 2009. Before the Perdido Landfill,聽ECUA was sending recyclables聽to Tarpon Paper Co. in Loxley, Alabama,聽but stopped聽after the company added a $12.50 per-ton tipping fee to customers, making it cost-prohibitive. Initially,聽ECUA had been processing all of its recyclables at a center in Montgomery until it abruptly closed in October, prompting the utility聽to begin taking materials to Tarpon.
The elimination of the use of these private sectors will allow ECUA to have complete control over how the materials are processed,
and the processing rates. “Progress is never easy, and this has not been an easy task for Escambia County聽or ECUA. My hat is off to the staff of the county commissioners and also the ECUA board members,” said Vicki Campbell, ECUA District 1 board member. “For the first time in over 20 years, we are in charge of our own destiny for recycling.”
ECUA serves about 75,000 customers in Escambia County and 20,000 in Santa Rosa County, and offers recycling pickup along with regular sanitation services. Jim Roberts, a spokesperson for ECUA said customers in Escambia County produce approximately 800 tons of waste per day. “The new IMRF will be able to sort 25 tons of waste per hour, or approximately 40,000 tons per year, with a single shift,” Roberts said.
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