Austin Resource Recovery (ARR), a department of the City of Austin, received a $45,000 grant from the Foam Recycling Coalition (FRC). This grant will increase the city’s capacity to manage and process more post-consumer foam polystyrene, including foodservice packaging and protective packaging for recycling.
Austin’s Recycle & Reuse Drop-Off Center (RRDOC) currently serves single family residents and multifamily complexes. Most services are at no cost, but some services have a fee, including services offered to the business community.
Austin’s Universal Recycling Ordinance requires businesses to provide access to recycling. With the ordinance in place, the RRDOC saw a large increase in the amount of foam collected and processed at its facility – an increase of nearly 8,000 pounds per month.
“We are excited to see more material coming to our facility. With such an increase in the volume of foam, we were struggling to keep up,” said Andy Dawson, assistant division manager. “With this grant from the Foam Recycling Coalition, we will purchase a second densifier to help supplement our current equipment and allow us to handle a greater volume of foam coming from businesses.”
To communicate with residents about this program, ARR has taken the initiative to provide outreach material to nearly all 195,000 residential customers in Austin. The city will continue to inform residents and businesses through social media sites and monthly utility bill inserts to relay new information about their recycling program.
The grant is made possible through contributions to FRC, which focuses exclusively on increased recycling of post-consumer foam polystyrene.
Published in the March 2020 Edition