Highlighting Solid Waste workers in Alachua County

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (WCJB) -This month, Alachua County and city leaders are highlighting those in public works and solid waste.

Between 600 and 1000 tons of waste enter the Leveda Brown Environmental Park every day before it’s shipped off to New River Landfill in Union County.

“What we do is we bring all the solid waste from Alachua County, it comes to the transfer station here,” Allen Betz, the transfer station manager, shared. “And we put it in bigger trucks and send it up to New River landfill.”

Everything is weighed coming in and coming out. The transfer station also offers free compost, dual stream recycling, and they create about 200 to 350 gallons of biodiesel gas a month to help fuel the garbage trucks.

“Yeah, the residents shouldn’t know how hard a job is because the trash guys, they’re not done till they’re done, I mean, we can’t just stop okay, our job our days over eight hours we’re gonna go home…a lot of guys are here 10 or 12 hours trying to get it done.”

Betz tells TV20, if they’re even a day behind, it affects productivity massively. Just this month a fire caused by a lithium battery caused the transfer station to shut down for a day, a testament to how important it is to dispose of your batteries the correct, safe way.

“Without us, it just stops, and commissioners get a lot of calls.”

Hazardous waste fills semi-trailers weekly, then is sent out for shredding and recycling.

All the recycling stays in the United States.

“This trash doesn’t stop coming in. No, it does not.”

After seeing the amount of sorting and attention to detail required to properly dispose of solid waste, it’s safe to say one could have a new appreciation for our solid waste workers.

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