HUNTSVILLE, AL. – The Solid Waste Disposal Authority of the City of Huntsville (SWDA) and its curbside recycling program, Recycling Alliance of North Alabama (RANA), announced today that the City of Huntsville Public Works Department and Madison County Commission Waste Control Department will temporarily assist with curbside recycling collections that are behind schedule.
The RANA curbside recycling program has recently experienced delays due to factors impacting the collection contractor, Red River Waste Services. These factors include intermittent staffing, supply chain and mechanical issues with trucks which affected the timeliness of collections. In January, health issues with employees exacerbated these delays to an unrecoverable point. SWDA worked with local governments and their sanitation departments to create a recovery plan to get all routes current.
“We realize the impact the extensive delays have had on our customers, and we do sincerely apologize for the inconvenience. Our staff has been working tirelessly to formulate a plan that will get everyone’s recycling back on schedule.” said John “Doc” Holladay, Executive Director SWDA. “We’d like to thank Mayor Tommy Battle and the Huntsville City Council and Chairman Dale Strong and the Madison County Commission for offering assistance to get the RANA program caught up and for continuing to support the importance of the recycling program in our community.”
All residents who have experienced delays are asked to please leave their RANA cart on the curb to allow the City of Huntsville, Madison County, and the RANA contractor’s trucks to service recycling carts. All collections should be caught up by the end of this weekend.
“The Madison County Commission knows that recycling is important to our citizens,” said Madison County Chairman Dale Strong. “Madison County stands willing to temporarily assist the Solid Waste Disposal Authority and its recycling contractor, during this challenging time to ensure that Madison County citizens have their materials collected.”
“These are difficult times and the impact from COVID-19 is affecting recycling services in our area,” said City of Huntsville Mayor Tommy Battle. “I, as well as other City Leaders, understand the positive attributes that recycling has on the environment and we are willing to assist RANA so that our citizens are not further impacted by continuing delays.”
The City and County will utilize their employees and trucks for the collections. All materials collected as part of this recovery effort will be sent to the recycling materials recovery processor in Chattanooga, TN. The City and County’s assistance is for the current backlog and SWDA will reimburse their costs for their assistance.
For more information about the RANA curbside program, please visit www.recycling-alliance.com.
The Recycling Alliance of North Alabama (RANA) is an opt-in monthly curbside recycling service funded by the Solid Waste Disposal Authority of the City of Huntsville that was launched in August of 2019. For more information about the program or how to sign up for a cart, please visit www.recycling-alliance.com or call (256) 801-CART. Households can now sign up for a second cart as well.
This project is partially funded by the Alabama Department of Environmental Management through a grant from the Alabama Recycling Fund.
