Clearwater Recycling Updates

The city of Clearwater has partnered with Kessler Consulting, which recently completed a composition study(PDF, 2MB)  of Clearwater Solid Waste & Recycling's stream of collected materials from the city's recycling customers, as required by the contract of our new recycling processor, Waste Connection.

Clearwater's current contamination rates is about 28 percent. This means that our collected materials include 28 percent of items that shouldn't be in the recycling stream. These include plastic bags, food-soiled items, single-use plastics, toys, trash, clothing, styrofoam, and other non-recyclables. All of these belong in the trash instead.

View the Composition Study Details(PDF, 2MB)

What Can I Recycle in Clearwater?

Customers received city recycling credits in the form of free service for utility bills dated Oct. 1, 2023, through March 31, 2024. 

In January 2023, the city conducted a massive overhaul of its recycling program. Effective Oct. 1, 2023, Clearwater recycling customers began receiving recycling credits in the form of free service for six months. Effective April 1, the city of Clearwater has resumed charging customers for recycling services. 

Customers will now see a recycling rate of $3.51 added onto this and future bills for recycling services. The recycling charge was $3.38 per month on a resident's utility bill until Sept. 30, 2023, and current recycling rates are $3.51 per month, per the city’s solid waste rate ordinance and a five-year rate schedule that was approved Sept. 5, 2019. 

Customers who have moved out of the city can request a credit by filling out a form at MyClearwater.com/WeAreRecycling. 

The city would like to thank all of its residents who have continued recycling with us. Clearwater’s recycling program is called “Simplify to 5.” Our program accepts five types of materials, including plastic bottles and containers #1-7, glass bottles and jars, tin/steel cans, cardboard and mixed paper.  

Items that contaminate the city’s recycling stream include plastic bags, bubble wrap, food, yard waste, electronics, among others. Non-recyclable items can damage machinery and create hazards for not only our workers, but also those at our recycling vendor, Waste Connections. When in doubt, throw it out. 

What If I Moved Out of Clearwater and Didn't Get a Credit?

Customers who have moved out of Clearwater can request a credit by filling out this form.

• Clearwater is committed to recycling right. We would like to thank our residents for continuing to recycle. In April 2023, we launched the dashboard shown at the top of this page to show how many tons of recycling is being collected and processed each month.  
• Since February 2023, the city of Clearwater has collected anywhere from 620 to 871 tons per month of recycling from residents and delivered it to our recycling processor, Waste Connections in St. Petersburg, where it has been accepted and processed as recycling. 
• "Clearwater is recycling, and we are committed to recycling in full transparency," said Kervin St. Aimie, the new director of Clearwater Solid Waste and Recycling. Before coming to the Solid Waste Department, St. Aimie was a long-time Clearwater Public Utilities manager with a track record of hard work and integrity. He was promoted to solid waste assistant director in January 2023 and was officially promoted to director July 29, 2023. "Our team is committed to correcting the city's recycling problem and doing the right thing." 
• A decrease in tonnage is shown on the dashboard beginning in April 2023 because the city of Safety Harbor and the town of Belleair stopped using Clearwater for recycling. The dashboard also gives insight into quantities processed in previous years. 

Oct. 8, 2024

Recycling Tonnage for September 2024

• In September 2024, the city of Clearwater collected 663.98 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg for processing:
  • ACCEPTED: 98.6 percent of our collected recycling, or 654.85 tons, was accepted by our recycling processor and was recycled.
  • REJECTED: 1.4 percent of our collected recycling, or 9.13 tons, was rejected by our recycling processor as garbage. When this occurred, crews drove the rejected loads to the Pinellas County waste-to-energy plant, where it was disposed of as trash.
• The city received revenue sharing in the amount of $22,533, reducing our expense to Waste Connections for the month for a net rate of $85.59/ton instead of $120/ton for single-stream recycling.
• Our annual contract renewal with Waste Connections takes effect Oct. 1, 2024. Our new processing rate will be increasing by 4.2% and will be $125/ton for single stream recycling.
• We would like to thank our residents for their commitment to continuing to recycle.

Sept. 5, 2024

• In August 2024, the city of Clearwater collected 787.98 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg for processing:
  • ACCEPTED: 96 percent of our collected recycling, or 755.68 tons, was accepted by our recycling processor and was recycled.
  • REJECTED: 4 percent of our collected recycling, or 32.3 tons, was rejected by our recycling processor as garbage. When this occurred, crews drove the rejected loads to the Pinellas County waste-to-energy plant, where it was disposed of as trash.
• The city received revenue sharing in the amount of $25,694, reducing our expense to Waste Connections for the month for a net rate of $86.00/ton instead of $120/ton for single-stream recycling.
• We would like to thank our residents for their commitment to continuing to recycle.

Aug. 2, 2024

• In July 2024, the city of Clearwater collected 820.23 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg for processing.
• The city received revenue sharing in the amount of $27,402, reducing our expense to Waste Connections for the month of July for a net rate of $86.59/ton instead of $120/ton for single stream recycling. 
• We would like to thank our residents for their commitment to continuing to recycle.

July 5, 2024

• In June 2024, the city of Clearwater collected 693.43 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg for processing.
• The city received revenue sharing in the amount of $23,115 reducing our expense to Waste Connections for the month of June for a net rate of $86.67/ton instead of $120/ton for single stream recycling.
• We would like to thank our residents for their commitment to continuing to recycle.

June 10, 2024

• In May 2024, the city of Clearwater collected 714.24 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg for processing.
• The city received revenue sharing in the amount of $23,775, based on recycling market values in our contract with Waste Connections, which reduced our expense to Waste Connections for the month for a net rate of $86.71/ton instead of $120/ton for single stream recycling.
• We would like to thank our residents for their commitment to continuing to recycle.

May 6, 2024

• In April 2024, the city of Clearwater collected 768.18 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg for processing.
• The city received revenue sharing in the amount of $18,985, based on recycling market values in our contract with Waste Connections, which reduced our expense to Waste Connections for the month of April for a net rate of $95.29/ton instead of $120/ton for single stream recycling.
• We would like to thank our residents for their commitment to continuing to recycle.

April 11, 2024

• In March 2024, the city of Clearwater collected 720.06 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg for processing.
• The city received revenue sharing in the amount of $17,461, based on recycling market values in our contract with Waste Connections, which reduced our expense to Waste Connections for the month of March for a net rate of $95.75/ton instead of $120/ton for single stream recycling.
• We would like to thank our residents for their commitment to continuing to recycle.

March 5, 2024

Recycling Tonnage for February 2024

• In February 2024, the city of Clearwater collected 718.37 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg for processing.
• The city received revenue sharing in the amount of $16,274, based on recycling market values in our contract with Waste Connections, which reduced our expense to Waste Connections for the month of February for a net rate of $97.35/ton instead of $120/ton for single stream recycling.
• We would like to thank our residents for their commitment to continuing to recycle.

Feb. 6, 2024

Recycling Tonnage for January 2024

• In January 2024, the city of Clearwater collected 882.99 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg for processing.
• The city received revenue sharing in the amount of $18,431, based on recycling market values in our contract with Waste Connections, which reduced our expense to Waste Connections for the month of January for a net rate of $99.13/ton instead of $120/ton for single-stream recycling.
• The city's vendor, Kessler Consulting, began conducting a composition study for our recycling/waste stream in mid-January 2024. We will update our website once that study is completed.
• We would like to thank our residents for their commitment to continuing to recycle.

Jan. 9, 2024

Recycling Tonnage for December 2023

• In December 2023, the city of Clearwater collected 713.41 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg for processing.
• December 2023 was the first month the city received revenue sharing based on recycling market values in our contract with Waste Connections. The rebate was $14,022, reducing our expense to Waste Connections for the month of December for a net rate of $100.34/ton instead of $120/ton for single-stream recycling.
• The Solid Waste and Recycling Department is working with our vendor to clarify how to define and calculate contamination rates. An updated composition study for our recycling/waste stream is scheduled to be conducted by Kessler Consulting in mid-January 2024. We will update our website once that is completed.
• We would like to thank our residents for their commitment to continuing to recycle.

Clearwater Single-Stream Recycling Contract

• The Clearwater City Council approved a long-term, single-stream recycling contract option Aug. 17, 2023, and the contract went into effect Oct. 1, 2023.
• The city is now paying $120 per ton of recycling and is receiving revenue sharing for our recyclables, based on the current market. 

Dec. 11, 2023

Recycling Tonnage for November 2023

• In November 2023, the city of Clearwater collected 725.39 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg for processing.
• The Solid Waste and Recycling Department is working with our vendor to clarify how to define and calculate contamination rates. An updated composition study for our recycling/waste stream is scheduled to be conducted by Kessler Consulting in mid-January 2024. We will update our website once that is completed.
• We would like to thank our residents for their commitment to continuing to recycle.

Holiday Solid Waste and Recycling Pickup Changes (Archived News Story from 2023)

You Might See Our New Recycling Trucks on the Road

Put Holiday Waste To Its Highest and Best Use (Archived News Story from 2023)

Nov. 9, 2023

Recycling Tonnage for October 2023

• In October 2023, the city of Clearwater collected 690.15 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg for processing.
• The Solid Waste and Recycling Department is working with our vendor to clarify how to define and calculate contamination rates. An updated composition study for our recycling/waste stream is scheduled to be conducted by Kessler Consulting in mid-January 2024. We will update our website once that is completed.
• We would like to thank our residents for their commitment to continuing to recycle.

Oct. 9, 2023

Recycling Tonnage for September 2023

• In September 2023, the city of Clearwater collected 734.44 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg for processing. 
• The Solid Waste and Recycling Department is working with our vendor to clarify how to define and calculate contamination rates. We will update our website once that is completed.
• We would like to thank our residents for their commitment to continuing to recycle.

Sept. 14, 2023

Recycling Tonnage for August 2023

• In August 2023, the city of Clearwater collected 686.89 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg. 
• The Solid Waste and Recycling Department is working with our vendor to clarify how to define and calculate contamination rates. We will update our website once that is completed.
• During Hurricane Idalia, the city  had to hold single-stream materials that were collected from our residents and hold them on site, while Waste Connections was closed Aug. 29 and 30. The city was able to resume taking materials to our recycling processor starting Aug. 31 as usual.
• We would like to thank our residents for their commitment to continuing to recycle.

Clearwater Single-Stream Recycling Contract

• The city of Clearwater’s solid waste staff presented the Clearwater City Council with a potential long-term, single-stream recycling contract option at the Aug. 14 Work Session meeting, which was unanimously approved by the Clearwater City Council at the Aug. 17 City Council meeting.
• Clearwater has been negotiating a contract with Waste Connections of St. Petersburg, the same vendor that has been processing our recycling since a short-term contract with them was established Feb. 16, 2023.
• The city anticipates the new single-stream recycling contract with Waste Connections to be in place effective Oct. 1, 2023. The city will pay $120 per ton of recycling and receive revenue sharing for our recyclables, based on the current market.

Watch the Aug. 14 Discussion (Item 8.3)

Watch the Aug. 17 Approval (Item 7.8)

Watch the Aug. 14 Discussion (Item 8.4)

Watch the Aug. 17 Approval (Item 9.3)

Aug. 14, 2023

View the presentation that included a recycling update about a potential new recycling vendor and also the discussion about customer credits on Aug. 14, 2023, at the Clearwater Work Session Meeting. The recycling contract update is Item 8.3, and the customer credits discussion is Item 8.4.

Aug. 11, 2023

Media Alert about Potential Recycling Contract Update and Discussion about Customer Credits or Refunds

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
Aug. 11, 2023 

Clearwater To Discuss a Potential Long-Term Recycling Contract and Issue of Recycling Credits 

CLEARWATER, Fla. – The city of Clearwater’s solid waste staff will present the Clearwater City Council with a potential long-term, single-stream recycling contract option at the next Work Session meeting, at 1:30 p.m., Aug. 14, in Council Chambers at the Clearwater Main Library, 100 N. Osceola Ave. A vote on the item is slated to occur at the City Council meeting at 6 p.m., Aug. 17. Staff will also bring forward the topic of credits or refunds to customers for discussion, in response to the discovery by the city that recycling had not been properly processed July 2022 to December 2022. 

Clearwater has been negotiating a contract with Waste Connections of St. Petersburg, the same vendor that has been processing our recycling since January 2023. If the contract is approved by City Council, the city would pay $120 per ton of recycling and receive some revenue sharing for our recyclables based on the current market. 

Clearwater is committed to recycling right. We would like to thank our residents for continuing to recycle. In April, we launched a new dashboard at MyClearwater.com/WeAreRecycling to show how many tons of recycling is being collected and processed each month.

Since February 2023, the city of Clearwater has collected anywhere from 620 to 871 tons per month of recycling from residents and delivered it to our recycling processor, Waste Connections in St. Petersburg, where it has been accepted and processed as recycling. 

"Clearwater is recycling, and we are committed to recycling in full transparency," said Kervin St. Aimie, the new director of Clearwater Solid Waste and Recycling. St. Aimie is a long-time Clearwater Public Utilities manager with a track record of hard work and integrity. He was promoted to solid waste assistant director in December 2022 and was officially promoted to director July 29. "Our team is committed to correcting the city's recycling problem and doing the right thing." 

A decrease in tonnage is shown on the dashboard beginning in April 2023 because the city of Safety Harbor and town of Belleair stopped using Clearwater for recycling. The dashboard also gives insight into quantities processed in previous years. 

Visit MyClearwater.com/Recycling for tips on what can and can’t be recycled and check out our dashboard at MyClearwater.com/WeAreRecycling to see how we’re handling our community’s recyclables. 

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July 7, 2023

Recycling Update for June 2023

In June 2023, the city of Clearwater collected 783.03 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg. 

The Solid Waste and Recycling Department is working with our vendor to clarify how to define and calculate contamination rates. We will update our website once that is completed.

RFP Status for Single-Stream Recycling

The city is currently working with a consultant, Kessler Consulting, to assist us with two recycling issues:

• Long-term Processing Contract: The consultant is assisting us with Invitation to Negotiate #29-23 for a long-term single-stream recycling contract that includes revenue sharing, which closed April 14. The city currently has a short-term contract with no revenue sharing with Waste Connections in St. Petersburg. The city received two applications, which were reviewed in a public meeting April 25. The result of that meeting is the city will continue to negotiate with the two respondents, Waste Connections and Waste Management.
• Route Efficiencies: The consultant will help us examine and address any efficiency issues with the recycling routes if they exist.

Refunds

June 13, 2023

Recycling Update for May 2023

• In May 2023, the city of Clearwater collected 786.1 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg.
• Our community partners, the city of Safety Harbor and the Town of Belleair, are no longer using Clearwater to process their recycling. 
• We would like to thank our residents for their commitment to continuing to recycle.

May 19, 2023

We Recycled 692.17 Tons in April 2023

• In April 2023, the city of Clearwater collected 692.17 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg.
• Of that 692.17 tons of recycling, 670.86 tons (or 96.9%) was accepted and processed.
• The amount that was rejected due to contamination was 21.31 tons (or 3.1%) for the month of April.

These figures are lower than last month because our community partner, the city of Safety Harbor, is no longer using Clearwater to process their recycling, as of March 23, 2023. The city anticipates these figures to continue to drop in June 2023, when the Town of Belleair stops using Clearwater for recycling as well. We would like to thank our residents for their commitment to continuing to recycle.

May 15, 2023

View the presentation that included a recycling update on April 4, 2023, at the Clearwater City Council Meeting. Item 9.1 was a request for City Council to authorize an increase on purchase orders to Waste Management and Waste Connections for the processing costs of municipal single-stream recycling in a cumulative not to exceed amount of $400,000 bringing the total amount to $800,000. The recycling update is Item 10.1.

April 17, 2023

We Recycled 871 Tons in March 2023

• In March 2023, the city of Clearwater collected 871 tons of recycling from residents and delivered it to two recycling providers (719 tons to Waste Connections in St. Petersburg, and 151.86 tons to Waste Management in Tampa).
• Of that 871 tons of recycling, 92% was accepted and processed.
• The rejection rate due to contamination was about 8 percent for the month of March.
• We would like to thank our residents and community partners for their commitment to continuing to recycle.

RFP Status for Single-Stream Recycling

The city is currently working with a consultant, Kessler Consulting, to assist us with two recycling issues:

• Long-term Processing Contract: The consultant will assist us with Invitation to Negotiate #29-32 for a long-term single-stream recycling contract that includes revenue sharing, which closed April 14. (The city currently has a short-term contract with no revenue sharing with Waste Connections in St. Petersburg.) The city received two applications, which will be reviewed in a public meeting at 1 p.m. Tuesday, April 25, Municipal Services Building, Room #130.
• Route Efficiencies: The consultant will help us examine and resolve efficiency issues with the recycling routes.

April 4, 2023

View the presentation that included a recycling update on April 4, 2023, at the Clearwater City Council Meeting. The recycling update is Item 9.9.

Jan. 30, 2023

View the presentation that included a recycling update on Jan. 30, 2023, at the Clearwater Work Session Meeting. The recycling update is Item 11.1.

Jan. 24, 2023

• Since Jan. 12, the city has been collecting recycling from residents. We would like to thank our residents for continuing to recycle.
• The city is collecting three or four semi truckloads of single-stream recycling each day, and we are taking one to two semi truckloads per day to Waste Management for recycling. 
• The remaining recycling materials are either being stored at our recycling facility for future processing or is being intermingled with garbage materials that are taken to Pinellas County for disposal. Managing this is an active and complicated process that can differ from day to day. 
• City administrators are working to secure a long-term contract with a recycling processor. 
• Finding markets to purchase recyclables isn’t just a problem that our region is experiencing. It is a national problem with no immediate short-term solution.

Dear neighbors. As you may have heard on the local news, we have not been good stewards of your recyclables or your trust. We recently found out that we have not been properly processing our recyclables. For this, we apologize.

This is unacceptable, and we are working to fix this and make it right for you. As of this week, we are taking recyclables to Waste Management for processing daily, and changes have been made in departmental administration. We are also working on a better and more economical long-term solution.

Read our complete statement that we sent to the media Jan. 12