The Board of Aldermen is considering reinstating Starkville’s curbside recycling program.
In March 2020, the city stopped the curbside program due to COVID-19. Starkville then moved to a drop-off recycling system at the sanitation department called Think Green.
At the board meeting last Tuesday, Students for a Sustainable Campus from Mississippi State University came to speak to the board about the group’s climate change demands. 
Emma Van Epps, the SSC’s president, said Starkville was the only city in the SEC without curbside recycling.
“One obstacle for people recycling is that (the drop off center) is primarily open during the workday, except for the 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on the first Saturday of each month,” Van Epps said. “And that can be a big obstacle for people who are either in their jobs during those hours or are maybe disabled and have a hard time hauling their recyclables to the Think Green center.”
Van Epps suggested the city introduce an opt-in recycling program using the 100 or more recycling bins the city owns from the old program. 
Ward 5 Alderman Hamp Beatty expressed his interest in the idea. He said Oxford reinstated its curbside recycling program last year due to citizens’ demands. Beatty questioned why Starkville and the university spend money for big events in town, but the city does not have curbside recycling. 
“I’m just putting it in context, what we prioritize to put money on, but we do not have a curbside recycling program,” Beatty said. “I think that’s something that’s missing desperately in the city of Starkville.” 
Later at the meeting, Beatty discussed recycling as part of the board’s scheduled agenda item. He said it was time to switch from drop-off recycling to opt-in or curbside and to charge for it. The alderman did not have ironed-out plans about how to achieve this goal, but he said he wanted the board to consider the idea.
Beatty compared Starkville to Oxford, Tuscaloosa and Auburn.
“We’re the same kind of university town. Same kind of folks, same kind of income. You know, a lot of the same kind of stuff that these other places have, and they have curbside recycling,” Beatty said.
Ward 2 Alderwoman Sistrunk said curbside recycling needed “to be done in a financially responsible way.” She asked if the city should continue drop-off recycling while providing curbside pickup.
“I do think it would be a great time to take a step back and look at our sanitation services top to bottom, what it costs us to provide, what our opportunity costs are going to be, what we will give up in order to have the time to do curbside recycling,” Sistrunk said.
Sistrunk said that before the city decides to switch the program, it needs to gauge the citizens’ interest in curbside recycling. She said opt-in recycling might work better because not all neighborhoods would participate in curbside recycling. 
Sistrunk told Beatty to see if a company would partner with the city to provide curbside recycling.
Ward 1 Alderman Ben Carver said he would collaborate with Beatty to look at recycling in the city.
“I don’t mind helping out there,” Carver said. “I’ll find out where it works in the Southeast and how it works there.”
Beatty said he wanted to give citizens an inexpensive, convenient recycling program. 
“I just think that we in Starkville are the place,” Beatty said. “We can find a way to do this.”

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Madelyn Sykes | The Reflector

The Think Green center is currently home to Starkville's recycling program.