One of the many goals worthy of our community as well as our country is the goal of resource recovery and conservation.  The Environmental Protection Agency informs us that the U.S. is increasingly dependent on recycling with 67 percent of the steel industry fed by scrap steel, 42 percent of the aluminum industry fed by scrap aluminum, and 38 percent of the paper industry fed by secondary fiber.  So, we can fortify our country as well as clean up our community by finding ways to reduce, reuse and recycle the resources we use in our everyday life.

To this end, my office has partnered with neighborhoods to host community trash clean-ups. An organized clean-up in the Greenway Neighborhood provided residents an easy way to toss out unwanted household items. Community members brought old furniture, mattresses, and fixtures. Residents also took advantage of a wood chipper, turning their unwanted tree branches in to mulch for their gardens.

A massive trash clean-up in the Walzem Road Area collected over 41 tons of trash. Using volunteers, the County saved nearly $12,000 compared to other efforts, and even earned a $400 check from the recycled items.

We will continue these activities with other neighborhoods in the future. Moving forward, these are some of the areas our community must address in this conservation effort:

Major Event Recyclables

What we need to do is to research the state-of-the-art "event recycling program". In "party city USA", one can only imagine the extent of aluminum, bottles and plastic going into the landfill at present. Having recycling bins during Fiesta events would be a great place to start.

E-Waste

How about a place to recycle our old and obsolete computers?  They do not improve with storage or time!  There is at least one recycler in town though.

With a number of the surrounding rural counties and even Mexico sending at least part of their waste stream to Bexar County's two Southside locations, the less we send means the less impact others have on our landfill. 

Green Waste (Cuttings & Clippings)

This is one of the really obvious areas needing attention.  Every time we think of placing multiple bags out for the garbage pickup each time a lawn is cut, we can only imagine what a devastating impact our County of nearly 1.4 million residents is having on our landfill's life.  It is reported that up to 40 percent of the waste stream is "green waste".  Clearly composting and mulching must have a priority in any serious plan to reduce the waste stream!

Construction & Demolition (C & D)

With one of the greatest building booms going on in San Antonio, we must be generating an incredible mass of recyclables.  The good news is that in this regard, some very enlightened builders are very conscientious.  All landfills though, receive "C & D". 

Office & Commercial (paper)

There are some really enlightened office recycling programs in place at various private and public offices.  Bexar County for example, is participating but can, and must, do much better.

Apartment Recyclables

Although most apartments have "trash" dumpsters, there are no recycling bins or dumpsters at most apartments.  Hopefully we can count our apartment neighbors in on recycling.