Mobile residents will once again be able to drop off their recyclables locally, as the city’s two recycling centers prepare to reopen next week following a closure that stretched back to the summer.
The centers, located at 308 Pinehill Drive and 4851 Museum Drive, are tentatively scheduled to reopen for drop-offs at 7 a.m. on Wednesday, providing residents with a familiar and convenient option for handling paper, cardboard, plastics and other recyclable materials without having to hold onto them any longer.
The reopening comes after the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority, the Florida-based utility that processes the city’s recyclables, announced it would resume collection operations. ECUA’s facility had been offline since July after a fire damaged the plant, forcing Mobile to pause its own drop-off program for months while repairs were completed.
City officials acknowledged the inconvenience the closure caused for residents who had built recycling into their weekly routines. Mayor Sandy Stimpson thanked Mobilians for their patience during the outage and said the city was glad to see the drop-off facilities coming back online.
Once the centers reopen, normal operating hours will resume: weekdays from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. and weekends from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. City officials remind residents that the two drop-off locations are intended strictly for use by Mobile residents, and other municipalities are not permitted to make use of the facilities.
The recycling partnership between Mobile and ECUA dates back to 2017, when the city outsourced its recycling program under a pair of contracts worth a combined $1.2 million over three years. The Mobile City Council has since approved an extension of that agreement, though the renewed term is shorter than the original arrangement. City leaders say the updated contract also gives Mobile more flexibility to turn to other providers in the future if the ECUA facility ever goes offline again, an option that was not available during the recent closure.
Residents with questions about the reopening or about what materials are accepted at the drop-off centers can contact the city’s recycling program directly for more information ahead of Wednesday’s restart.