Update: Odessa, Texas, brings back recycling after eliminating services in May

Editors' note: This story has been updated from a previous version to reflect the city of Odessa resuming recycling services.

After voting to eliminate recycling services in early May, the city of Odessa, Texas, resumed recycling operations in mid-June.

The Odessa Recycling Center, known as the "Time Machine," halted operations in May and was presumed to be shuttered for recycling for good, but the city backtracked on its previous intention to divert renovation funds to other infrastructure projects and, according to NewsWest9 in Midland, Texas, moved forward with the Time Machine's renovations.

NewsWest9 reports four green bins designated for plastic, four yellow bins for cardboard and two blue bins for mixed paper have been placed at the facility in an attempt to mitigate what the city said was a serious contamination problem. According to Joven, more than 80 percent of recyclables entering the Time Machine were landfilled.

"It's a little more compact, the footprint's a little bit smaller, and so we'll be able to control it a lot easier," Joven tells NewsWest9. "This is something that the staff has been pressing for and working for for the last 20 years."

Council unanimously rejected two contracts at its meeting May 9—one for hauling services from Lubbock, Texas-based SOS Waste Services and one for recycling services provided by Butts Recycling Inc. (BRI), based in Midland, Texas, citing high costs.

The city is now managing its own recycling services while officials seek out potential partnerships for hauling and processing. Before resuming operations, residents had to drive about 20 miles northeast to BRI’s Midland material recovery facility (MRF) to drop off recyclables. Acceptable items included polyethylene terephthalate (No. 1 plastic), high-density polyethylene (No. 2 plastic), cardboard, aluminum cans, tin cans and mixed paper.

BRI also operates a MRF in San Angelo, Texas—about 132 miles from Odessa—that accepts office paper and newspaper in addition to the items the Midland MRF accepts.

"For us, [now we don't] have to send everything over to Midland or further destinations [are] able to shorten our routes, to be able not to tie up with personnel, so we can do both the recycling ... and also continue to address the pickup of the trash throughout our community," Joven says.

According to a May report from NewsWest 9, Joven said a previous investment of $350,000 for a new recycling facility could now be reinvested into infrastructure and personnel. By managing it's own recycling, Joven says that money still can be reinvested and the city will look to put it toward employee retention.

“The city services, the city staff, the city resources and the payroll and everything that it takes, it was a cost, it was insurmountable and over the years millions of dollars had gone into this,” Joven told NewsWest 9 of the city’s recycling services.

The 2020 U.S. Census reported 114,428 residents in the city of Odessa, making it the 28th most populous city in Texas.