A Greener City: S.A. moves slow on recycling

Some homeowners put out one garbage can. Others leave up to six at the curb, plus garbage bags that break open when the men pick them up.

Villanueva didn’t think about recycling until he started hoisting trash cans filled with cardboard, plastic bottles and newspapers that could have been recycled.

“After a while of seeing this, you get motivated,” he said as the truck compactor crushed a load of soda pop cans and paper.

In 1995, San Antonio was among the first cities in Texas to offer citywide curbside recycling. The city began an automated system two years ago and now is halfway through switching from 18-gallon green recycling bins to 96-gallon blue carts. The move has doubled the amount of household trash city residents recycle, from 6 percent to 12 percent.

But that’s less than half the national average of 32 percent, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. And it’s a fraction of San Francisco’s 70 percent recycling rate, the highest in the country.

The difference translates to millions lost in potential revenue. Even at its low recycling rate, San Antonio has earned more than $3.8 million this year. The check for September alone was $453,659, or $85 per ton of recyclables.

The return per ton dropped by more than 30 percent in October because of a declining market for recyclables. But city officials said the recycling program is designed to accommodate fluctuating prices.

The benefits of recycling are more than financial. Recycling reduces the need for more landfills and protects natural resources. A ton of recycled paper saves 17 trees, 7,000 gallons of water and the equivalent of 185 gallons of gas, according to the EPA.

Recycling a ton of aluminum cans saves the equivalent of 1,655 gallons of gasoline. With less trash to bury, landfills produce less methane, a greenhouse gas 20 times more effective at trapping heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, according to the EPA.