WHEREAS, Keep Denton Beautiful, Inc. through its affiliation with Keep America Beautiful and Keep Texas Beautiful is required to focus on decreasing the impact of solid waste on the community;

WHEREAS, the City of Denton was an early leader in the Metroplex by offering one of the very first recycling programs to its citizens in 1988;

WHEREAS, the other early recycling leader in the Metroplex (Richardson) began offering curbside recycling to its citizens in 1993;

WHEREAS, the City of Denton is currently one of nine cities out of 71 North Central Texas cities that does not offer curbside recycling services to its citizens;

WHEREAS, the City of Denton has recently decreased its recycling services while the Denton population continues to increase (7% from May 1999 to May 2000):

• From seven drop-off sites for aluminum to six drop-off sites,
• From seven drop-off sites for glass to one drop-off site, and
• From seven drop-off sites for steel/tin to six drop-off sites;

WHEREAS, the City of Denton does not offer plastics or commercial recycling services;

WHEREAS, Keep Denton Beautiful, Inc. conducted an informational survey of Denton residents’ recycling preferences and determined that 96.5% wanted the option of curbside recycling offered;

WHEREAS, Keep Denton Beautiful, Inc. acknowledges and applauds the City of Denton’s plan to implement a complete recycling program using a Materials Recovery Facility, currently scheduled to begin service in 2005;

WHEREAS, Keep Denton Beautiful, Inc. supports the City of Denton’s intention to implement a curbside paper recycling program by 2003, and a more comprehensive curbside recycling program by 2005;

WHEREAS, Keep Denton Beautiful, Inc. cannot accept the City of Denton’s proposed timeline for implementing a curbside recycling program, or a complete recycling program utilizing a Materials Recovery Facility;

Now, Therefore, Keep Denton Beautiful, Inc. respectfully requests that the City of Denton:

• immediately process a Request for Proposal to determine the actual cost of contracting for comprehensive curbside recycling, and commercial paper recycling;
• upon receipt of costing information, contract with the University of North Texas’ Survey Research Center to conduct a specific-issue survey to determine the willingness of the citizens of Denton to pay for comprehensive curbside recycling services;
• determine the best way to finance a comprehensive curbside recycling program;
• announce a plan to the citizens of Denton by April 20, 2001 (Earth Day) to implement a comprehensive curbside recycling program;
• establish the interim goal of offering a comprehensive curbside recycling program to the citizens of Denton, by December 31, 2001, through contracted services as a supplement to the current drop-off program and until the Materials Recovery Facility is fully on-line;
• proceed with plans for a comprehensive curbside recycling/waste disposal program using a Materials Recovery Facility with every effort to decrease the timeline for full implementation.