STARKVILLE — After months of discussions and legal opinions, the Starkville Board of Aldermen is considering an amendment to its sanitation ordinance which would allow private companies not contracted by the city to provide solid waste and recycling pickup services in town.
The city”s sanitation ordinance prohibits any solid waste service, including recycling, if it is not provided by the city or a business contracted by the city. When officials last year became aware of the language in the ordinance banning private companies from solid waste and recycling pickup, the city sent a letter to BluBox, a division of Triangle Maintenance Service in Lowndes County, to cease and desist operations in Starkville.
BluBox allows residents and businesses to recycle for $7 a month and has a “very large following” in Starkville and Oktibbeha County, sales and marketing director Karen Stanley said, though she could provide no exact figures.
“We picked up a lot of the Oktibbeha County customer base because the city is only offering recycling within the city limits,” Stanley said. “One of the big things is that … people from Starkville like to recycle glass, and we are one of the only recyclers in the area who takes glass.”
BluBox accepts cardboard, plastic, steel and aluminum containers, mixed paper and glass at its drop-off locations. The company also accepts additional items such as batteries, tires and used oil at its offices in Columbus.
Starkville Recycling accepts plastic, cardboard, office paper, mixed paper, newspapers scrap metal, batteries and electronics.
Attorneys for BluBox contacted the state attorney general”s office, which responded with an opinion saying it is not permissible for a city to prevent private companies from contracting directly with citizens and businesses for solid waste and recycling.
Starkville Mayor Parker Wiseman said the city never intended to muscle out private companies.
“I don”t know how that original language came into being,” Wiseman said. “In all likelihood, it”s not something that occurred independently by a lawmaker in Starkville. It was probably pulled from a form ordinance or an ordinance from another city.”
City Sanitation Department trucks collect recyclables from more than 1,100 homes and businesses as part of the city”s free curbside pickup program. The items are taken to Starkville Recycling, a private company which has contracted with the city to sort and process those items. Starkville Recycling and the city split the profits from the items collected during the curbside pickup program.
Starkville Recycling also has contracted with the city to collect items from recycling bins set up at several locations in town.
BluBox also works with several organizations in Starkville, like Green Starkville, and has provided free recycling containers at local events, like the Johnny Cash Flower Pickin” Festival and PumpkinPalooza. They also offer curbside pickup, for a fee, in Columbus and West Point. Through a contract with the city of West Point, the company picks up recyclables from all city offices.
The first public hearing on Starkvile”s sanitation ordinance amendments is scheduled for Feb. 2 at 5:30 p.m. in City Hall.
To sign up for the city of Starkville”s free curbside recycling pickup program, contact the Sanitation Department at 662-323-2652.
To sign up with BluBox, call 662-245-1555, or go to www.bigblubox.net.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 30 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 30 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
