Austin Resource Recovery has released new details on plans to build a central hub where city garbage and composting trucks transfer their loads to bigger trucks before the waste is hauled to out-of-town disposal sites.
Department officials said the hub, also called a transfer station, would help improve city services and reduce emissions from disposal trucks. But questions remain about the location and cost of the proposed facility.
Right now, when city waste collection trucks fill up on their routes, the drivers need to go long distances — sometimes more than 30 miles — to empty out at landfills and composting sites.
The transfer station would closer to the central city, where city sanitation workers would move the loads into much bigger trucks before the long haul.
“This is gonna be a big building, everything is gonna be done totally indoors. No trash sits there overnight, all trash will be removed every day," said Austin Resource Recovery Director Richard McHale. "So this isn't the final disposal facility, merely a transfer facility.”
McHale said having that central hub will help drivers return to their routes faster, improving service.
It would also provide new space for waste drop off after natural disasters and could help electrify the city’s fleet of garbage trucks because they will not need the battery range necessary to reach far-flung landfills.
But the project comes at a cost.
The city and consultants from NewGen Strategies and Solutions conducted an economic feasibility study looking at five potential sites for the station.
They found the facility would increase the cost of city garbage and compost collection unless the transfer station generated its own revenue. It could do that by accepting trash from private waste pickup companies for a fee.
Of the locations analyzed, consultants found a property on Harris Branch Parkway in Northeast Austin provided the best location for the transfer station.
But McHale said the properties reviewed by the consultants are no longer available for the development.
“The study kind of gives us a general area where we need to start looking,” he said. “We've been working now with our real estate group and trying to find properties which we can actually bring back to council for their evaluation and hopefully approval.”
He said he knows “solid waste facilities can be difficult to site," but hopes community outreach can assure people that the transfer station will be a good neighbor.
The next step in that process will happen on Aug. 27 when Austin Resource Recovery will present details on the project to the city’s Climate, Water, Environment and Parks Committee.
