By Will Lavender
Phoenix Recycling is one of the most ecologically exciting businesses in the Greater New Orleans area. Company owners David McDonough and Steven O’Connor are committed to the local economy and environment. Office chatter these days among early adopters of the curbside service is about the reliability as well as the expanded types of papers, plastics, and metals that Phoenix collects that the free, but limited service provided by the city pre-Katrina did not.
This may come as a surprise to some, but Phoenix Recycling has been operating since 1991. McDonough, after graduating from the University of Georgia in 1989, moved back to New Orleans and was puzzled at the lack of recycling options. He then began making plans to start a recycling company, and over the years took many steps towards that goal. Then, as everything was seemingly just about to come together, the City of New Orleans began its own recycling program and Phoenix switched its focus to commercial recycling.
Shortly before Hurricane Katrina McDonough followed his ex-wife and children to Atlanta. After the storm, during a visit to New Orleans for Jazzfest, McDonough had dinner with Steven O’Connor, again discussing the lack of recycling options in New Orleans. After sending out a few emails to test the waters, and receiving very positive responses, McDonough decided to commute to New Orleans, and Phoenix began its residential recycling service.
Business has been booming for Phoenix ever since. In fact, it has been so overwhelming McDonough and O’Connor have been riding the trucks themselves in order to keep up. Phoenix has the support and cooperation of the City of New Orleans and the Sanitation Department. Although some of private waste haulers, such as SDT and Richard’s, accidentally picked up the recycling bins as the program started, they have also been responsive in the wake of such large-scale support for the recycling program.
That’s not to say there haven’t been some setbacks. Phoenix, with only two trucks for the residential routes and one for the commercial, purchased a used curbside truck. This turned out to be a costly mistake. The truck spent much more time with the mechanic than on the street, explaining why Phoenix has been spotted making pickups in rented vehicles. There has also been some skepticism from residents who received free recycling services from the city before the storm, and are now paying a monthly fee to a private company which then sells those same materials. In fact, in the month of August, Phoenix’s residential program picked up 20 tons of materials and grossed only $567. This figure does not include the cost of transporting these materials to the closest sorting facility in Baton Rouge.
Phoenix Recycling has big plans for the future. While the commercial side of Phoenix runs on a traditional business model, the residential side is less conventional. McDonough and O’Connor plan to gather as much material as possible, and expand the service as quickly as possible. The greater the number of customers, the less the monthly fee will be. Prices will lower as break-even points are reached. Eventually Phoenix would like to grow to participate in the city recycling effort.
Phoenix would also like to build their own sorting facility here in New Orleans. This would also lower the cost of residential pickup, saving the company the cost of transporting the materials to a Baton Rouge material recovery facility. A local sorting facility would also provide more Phoenix jobs and a manned dropoff center. While unmanned dropoff centers have proven to be dangerous (toxic materials and even loaded guns have been found in these unsupervised sites), a staffed dropoff center would allow the public to recycle normally difficult items, such as fluorescent light bulbs and used automobile oil filters.
More than just a recycling service, Phoenix would like to be an educational and environmental resource, as well as supporting and recognizing other people and organizations that are doing similar things. As soon as there are established options, all the trucks in the Phoenix stable will run on biodiesel (see http://www.nobifuel.com/ for more information).
“There are many progressive things happening in the waste management business right now,†says McDonough,â€and we’d like to bring some of those things to New Orleans.â€
Price for residential service is $15 per month, with a $1 discount for members of neighborhood associations. See http://www.phoenixrecyclingnola.com for a sign up sheet, a route map and schedule, a materials list, and a description of the service. Contact Phoenix through phoenix.recycling@gmail.com or at (504) 914-0739.
