More recycling now in Jacksboro

Jacksboro has begun an expanded recycling program through its trash collection service.

For years, Jacksboro has had dumpsters that allowed for the recycling of cardboard.

Waste Connections Division Manager Jeff Ash said the company no longer has trucks that are able to empty those types of dumpsters, so they switched out for one that accepts a wider range of recyclables.

The orange recycling dumpsters are located at Green Frog, Donut Palace, Kwik Stop, the City of Jacksboro maintenance barn and John R. Lindsey State Jail.

People can recycle cardboard, paper, plastic, aluminum cans without sorting which is then picked up on Saturdays and hauled to a MRF, materials recovery facility, in Denton.

“We’re getting a couple of tons of material out of it every month,” Ash said. “They’re pretty full when we dump them.”

The dumpsters were introduced following a merger between Progressive Waste and the Woodlands’ based Waste Connections in early June. 

Prior to that, Progressive had already switched Graham to a curbside recycling service last September and Bridgeport made the switch in June.

Ash said there has been no discussion of Jacksboro changing to curbside recycling at this point, but doing so would increase residents’ garbage bill by $4 to $5 per month.

If Jacksboro were to do it, the city would have to be all in.

“It’s nothing that we’re going to force on anybody, but I can’t make it work with 20 people doing it,” Ash said. “In the grand scheme of things, four or five bucks a month isn’t a whole lot of money. We have to run a second truck through, or the same truck through twice. You’ve run up the operating expenses and in the market, you don’t get paid enough for the materials for it to be free.”