City of Longview to change recycling schedule to save costs

The city of Longview is changing its recycling program in an effort to prevent higher costs at the materials recycling facility it contracts with in Kilgore.

Starting Nov. 3, city sanitation customers will put their trash out on their regular day but should put recyclables out the next day in the cans with blue lids.

Longview was without a recycling program for about a year after the previous recycling facility the city used burned in June 2024.

A new facility, Northeast Texas Regional MRF, opened earlier this year in Kilgore, and the city restarted recycling this past summer.

“We’ve got one of the premiere recycling programs in East Texas,” Dwayne Archer, the city’s Public Works director, told the City Council on Oct. 9. “We’ve run into some issues, though.”

Archer said that because of the amount of time the recycling program was on pause, some people started to use the cans with blue lids as an additional trash cart.

“That has increased the contamination (that the recycling facility is receiving), and it’s really putting a burden on the (material recycling facility),”  Archer said.

Contamination happens anytime something that’s not recyclable gets tossed into the recycling bin and taken to Northeast Texas Regional MRF.

The city’s communications staff have tried to address the issue in social media posts and other efforts.

“We’ve seen very little change in the contamination rate from that,” Archer said.

The contamination issue caused Northeast Texas MRF to call for an increased cost if it receives a load of contaminated recyclables. Archer said the city pays $75 a ton for recyclables it takes to Northeast Texas MRF. The proposed change, which the council will consider later, would increase the cost of a load of contaminated recyclables to $150 per ton.

The proposed change in collection days will help address the issue.

Trash trucks will operate Monday to Thursday, with garbage customers putting their trash out on their typical trash day. Recycling trucks will run Tuesday through Friday, with people putting their recyclables out on the day after their regular trash collection day.

“That will allow people who want to continue recycling to continue doing so by putting their recyclables out in the blue-top bins the day after their typical trash day,” Archer said.

The means for example, if a customer’s trash day is Monday, recyclables will be picked up on Tuesday.

That also means that if a person wants to use the typical recycle carts to hold trash on their trash day, they can do that and will be taken to the landfill.

“There’s a couple of real benefits we’ll see,” Archer said, starting with a cleaner recycling stream.

Also, it will be a more efficient process to reduce contamination.

The other option to paying more for contaminated recycling loads is for a city garbage truck to return to the recycling facility and take that load to the landfill before it can return to its route. Both options are costly, Archer said.

The change also offers “fleet optimization.” Archer said, by providing an extra day to perform preventative maintenance on the trucks. Recycling trucks won’t be working on Monday so city crews can work on those trucks that day and the trash trucks on Fridays.

Before Nov. 3, stickers will be placed on carts informing customers of the change, and the city’s communications staff will work to get the word out.

Also, Archer wants to make sure residents understand what can and can’t be recycled so they don’t contaminate what’s in the carts.

The city accepts paper and cardboard, plastics Nos. 1-7 and household metal cans. The labels do not have to be removed, Archer said.

The city’s recycling program does not accept “films” – plastic grocery bags or trash bags.

If they make it into the recycling can, the materials recycling facility has to open each bag and dump it out because it causes problems with the recycling machine.

“We want all the recycling loose in the can when we collect it,” Archer said.

Mayor Kristen Ishihara praised the city’s recycling program.

“I would like to celebrate the recycling program overall,” she said, adding it’s really been Archer’s “baby” over the years.

“I think it’s widely supported in Longview,” she said.

District 6 Councilman Sidney Allen emphasized the importance of making the change and not placing recyclables in plastic bags inside the recycling can. He referred to a conversation he had with Todd Lucas, general manager of Northeast Texas Regional MRF.

“He’s got new state-of-the-art equipment. He’s trying very hard to make this work,” Allen said. “We’ve got to clean it up if we want to continue recycling.”