The Amarillo city commission held a second meeting on Tuesday about green programs, costs, and feasibility
AMARILLO TX -- In December, city officials first met with citizens wanting a greener Amarillo. Tuesday, city commissioners held a second meeting to revisit the issue and present new material.
The meeting focused around a presentation encompassing the major challenges facing recycling programs right now and the costs involved with starting certain programs like curbside recycling. The presentation also featured information about other cities like Lubbock and Abilene and how they are doing with their respective green programs.
"What works in some cities doesn't work in all cities, you can do things in central Texas that we can't necessarily do in Amarillo, but we certainly have things we can do. We've just got to decide what is cost effective and what's going to give us the most bang for our buck in terms of environmental protection," said City Commissioner Brian Eades.
Eades also attended a major roundtable discussion with representatives from 20 different public entities across Texas. This discussion took place in Austin back in late January. The news and information was grim as most cities are struggling to keep sustainable programs.
Some of the current challenges recycling programs face are failing markets, the lack of participation and, in Amarillo's case, geography and transportation since some of the closest processors are located in Arizona or the DFW metroplex.
The city commission did not host the meeting with intentions of official action Tuesday. The meeting was more about education and presenting the latest information to the citizens interested.
"I feel like it was a success, I feel like there was a negative spin on the costs and stuff like that, but I think that there are ways to make it a sustainable program. I do feel really positive about the whole meeting," said Cathy McClendon, a member of the Amarillo green team.
The success McClendon is referring to is the city's willingness to create and form a committee composed of city officials, recyclers and, most importantly, citizens. The goal of the committee is to present ways Amarillo can go green and implement more environmentally conscious programs.
"The city is trying, they're going to look into it but the public has to participate, the public has to become more educated and has to be willing to play a role in making this a success," said McClendon.
"We got a petition today from people who are interested in issues like recycling and environmental issues today, and there were seven hundred signatures on that, we think that there's a serious group of individuals very intelligent and very well-versed people who are willing to go to work on behalf of the city to try to help us come up with really green, and wise decision making," said Eades.
"I really have not seen citizens in Amarillo as excited about being progressive in terms of solving our energy problems, reducing our carbon footprints, and reducing our costs for handling recyclable materials," said Eades.
