News

Alamo 1 receives good report from city; disposal of TVs, tires pose looming problem

By William Hoover
Anvil Herald Correspondent

     Does anybody have a free tire cutter or know how to recycle televisions at no cost?
     Such were the bottom-line questions Monday, May 5, when the local manager for Alamo 1, the city’s solid waste disposal contractor, gave Hondo City Council a presentation regarding the Spring Citywide Cleanup.
     Mayor Jim Danner said the local Alamo 1 manager, Blake Caesar, would bring council up to speed on current issues and future problems expected from discarded tires and television sets.
     Caesar told council his company did not pick up any tires or televisions which residents put out for pickup because the instructions given to residents specifically stated tires and TVs were not eligible for Spring Cleanup. However, Caesar said he expected to see a growing number of TVs waiting for trash pickup as the nation moves to a new digital television signal standard next February, which will provide a high definition picture quality.
“It is hard to believe it has been 14 moths,” said Caesar, who said he wanted to inform council about his company’s experience and to share some of its accomplishments made during the first year of serving the City of Hondo.
     “As I have told Tim Fousse, I’m a garb-ologist now, an educated garbage man,” quipped Caesar. “We just completed our third Citywide Cleanup in 13 months. This last one was heavy, but we were able to complete the south side of Highway 90 in three days and the north side of Hwy. 90 in three days.”
     In six days of cleanup, Alamo 1 collected and hauled 1,400 cubic yards of bulky trash out of Hondo. “It has been a learning experience but it gets better and easier every time we conduct a cleanup,” Caesar said. “One of the things we’ve been trying to complete for the City of Hondo is providing numerous extra containers for the city. With the new Little League ball fields and the city growing, we determined some places needed more service than we originally thought. For example, the Community Center needed a container instead of a waste wheeler. We were glad we were able to provide those (upgrades) at no cost to the city.”
     One of the other things Alamo 1 promised a year ago was to try to purchase the majority of their supplies in Hondo, according to Caesar. “We are currently purchasing over $17,000 a month in the city,” said the garbage expert. “Fuel, parts, tires, everything we can possibly purchase without going to San Antonio, we buy here locally.”
     Another problem Alamo 1 vowed to solve when it was awarded the contract to be the city’s waste disposal contractor was to remove the numerous bags of leaves many Hondo residents put out for collection—instead of letting them decompose as mulch into their lawns. Leaves and brush are not accepted at landfills because they occupy valuable space meant for solid waste. Leaves and grass clippings are generally better used as mulch or compost, returning nutrients to the soil as they naturally decompose.
     “There are people in Hondo who enjoy raking leaves,” said Caesar. “Our contract states we will pick up five additional bags of leaves along with garbage each week. We try to pick up five to eight bags from each home with bagged leaves while we are out on our routes. But we have been running an extra truck on Thursdays and Saturdays, on an as-needed basis, just picking up leaves. We picked up 80 bags of leaves from one home. I don’t think I’ve raked 80 bags of leaves in my entire life. So I hope you see a noticeable difference on the streets because we are making a concerted effort to keep the city clean.”
     In a related disposal issue, Caesar said he wanted to thank City Manager Robert Herrera and Director of Public Works and Aviation Tim Fousse for their cooperation. He said he needed city help trying to solve problems associated with disposal of vehicle tires and televisions.
     “We have a real good relationship working with city management,” said Caesar of Hondo’s city government and staff. “They work with us and I hope they think we work well with them. Our big issue on the horizon is tires and TVs. The landfills are no longer accepting whole tires and they will only take cut tires. There is only one tire recycler in San Antonio and they charge for the service. Back in the late 1990s, the state had a subsidized program for companies that disposed of tires but they (discontinued the project). So we are currently working to find the best and least expensive method to remove all the old tires from the city. Alamo 1 is also looking at trying to find a recycler and, if we can’t, we are looking at setting up our own tire recycling business for small communities.”
     The hottest, most pressing issue is television disposal, according to Caesar, who said TVs are not accepted by landfills because of the toxic chemicals inside. People will have to purchase an adapter to allow their old analog TVs to receive and interpret the new digital television signals, or they will have to buy a new high definition digital TV in order to receive the new format. By February 2009, all television stations are mandated to transmit their signals in the digital format.
     “We are preparing for a big influx of TV disposals down the road,” Caesar said. “Currently, one facility in San Antonio takes old TVs. But it costs about $35 to dispose of each TV, or more depending on the size. This is a big issue. Hopefully, somebody will come up with some type of recycling alternative so we can keep the cost down for the disposal of TVs.”
     “So right now (TV disposal) is the citizen’s problem?” the mayor asked Caesar.
     “Right,” said Hondo’s Alamo 1 manager. “San Antonio has a place set up to take TVs if you show up with your utility bill. Currently, there is only one other operation that takes TVs.”
     Asked what other cities and organizations did with their old TVs, Caesar said he had no idea but he would like to know because safely recycling a TV, so there is no harm to the environment, will probably be a lucrative business in the near future. “The landfills won’t take them because there is mercury, phosphorus or something in the tube,” Caesar said. “during the first citywide clean up, in early 2007, we didn’t know about the rule and picked up TVs. We got caught at the landfill going in with them in our first load (and had to remove them).”
     Herrera said City Attorney Frank Garza was going to contact the City of San Antonio to learn how they are actually disposing of the old TV sets. “That will be some information we can give to you,” the city manager told Caesar.
     “I’d say we saw around 40 television sets on the curb this last cleanup,” Caesar said.
     Danner said there are a lot of old tires needing to be disposed of in Hondo and suggested citizens be given one opportunity to bring all their tires to one collection site at no cost.
     “We might allow a one-time free service where we allow people to take their tires to a certain site where they can be dumped and piled up, and then we could haul off all the tires at one time,” he said. “In the future, we couldn’t allow tires to be disposed of that way. But if we can find a spot, we could allow it this one time.”
     Caesar said one of the options he is considering is similar to the mayor’s proposal. “Alamo 1 could bring in an 18-wheeler and, with the city employees’ and my employees’ help, we could have a cleanup on a Saturday where the citizens of Hondo could bring their tires in for free,” he said. “We’d stack all the tires in the 18-wheeler and take them for recycling. As I told Mr. Herrera, the (tire) disposal form is given to people when they have their tires changed and there is a $3 to $5 fee, just like there is for your car battery. But maybe that is why we are seeing all the tires in town. People are not paying the disposal fee when they buy new tires.”
Danner asked who would pay for the recycling, if the city and Alamo 1 sponsored a one-time free tire disposal service. “The cost of what we are doing right now depends on the size of the tire,” said Caesar. “It is $2 to recycle a regular tire and, when you jump to the 300 series tire, the price goes to $5 and tractor tires cost from $25 to $30 to recycle. But we can put about 1,200 tires into an 18-wheel trailer.”
     If the city does not sponsor some service for community residents so they can take their tires to a collection center, the tires will just accumulate and become a nuisance and a health hazard, according to the mayor. Old tires lying around are ideal nesting grounds for mosquitoes and other vermin.
     “We need to remove the tires from the city at least one time,” Danner said.
     In response to a question from Herrera, Caesar said tires need to be cut into four sections if they are going to be disposed of in a landfill. However, tires taken to a recycling center do not need to be cut.
     “You can put 200 tires in a roll-off, but we would still have to take them to the recycling center in San Antonio,” said Caesar. “We are looking into what a reasonable tire cutter would cost. To dispose of a whole, uncut tire at the landfill is $15.”
     Herrera said he has approached Medina County Commissioners Court about the possibility of Hondo using the county’s tire cutter. “My question was whether or not their tire cutter was in working condition” said Herrera. “As soon as I hear from the county judge, we will find out if there is an opportunity for us to use their equipment.”
     “We can stack a lot more tires if we are able to cut them,” said Caesar.
     In response to a question from Danner, Fousse estimated there were more than 1,000 but less than 2,000 old tires laying around Hondo in yards or in illegal dumping sites.
     “This has been an ongoing battle for years,” said Caesar. “Everybody had tire shredders until the state stopped their subsidy program (for companies who accepted old tires for disposal). I remember when we had a county collection station, we were charging for tires and people would leave only to come back at night and throw them over the fence. It has been a problem for 10 years.”
     Herrera told council the tire and TV disposal problems are a community-wide issue. After working with Alamo 1 to determine a recommendation, the city manager said he would return to council with advice to resolve the issue. “With additional information, we can come up with a plan of action,” he said. “If council is leaning toward a free one-time pick-up where citizens can take their tires to a designated center, then we may be able to have a better read on this particular monster. As for TV sets, if City Attorney Garza will visit with San Antonio officials and find out what they are doing to dispose of TVs, maybe that would be something we could piggyback with an interlocal agreement.”
     Before ending the discussion, the Mayor asked Herrera how many complaints the city received now that Alamo 1 has conducted its third citywide cleanup.
     “I have not had any phone calls to my office complaining about the spring or fall cleanup,” said the city manager. “We may want to ask City Secretary Yolanda Benitez or city staff members. But if there was (a complaint), Alamo 1 has gone back and addressed the issue, probably doing more than they needed to do.”
     Mayor Danner told Caesar he had earned a good report card for Alamo 1 and said he enjoyed the educational presentation.