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.
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