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Every week for the past 10 years, Aaron Thomas has brought his recycling to the city’s dropoff location in Garfield Park.
Thomas, who lives in the neighborhood, doesn’t want to pay the $100 annual fee to have his recycling picked up by a private contractor twice a month, so he goes to the park instead.
But it’s not much of a long-term solution. The two dumpsters — there was only one until demand warranted a second container — are often overflowing and filled with items that can’t be recycled. There are 11 dropoff sites scattered throughout the city, but they often change locations due to illegal dumping.
Thomas believes “it would be easier, and it would be worth taxpayers’ dollars” to have universal curbside recycling in Marion County.
“Trash is already part of our taxes,” Thomas told Mirror Indy as he offloaded his recycling into the dumpster. “Theoretically, it would make (recycling) easier, and there would be less recycling and trash piled up here.”
Indianapolis remains the largest city in the country without universal curbside recycling, and it will continue to hold that distinction until at least 2028, three years after Mayor Joe Hogsett’s administration initially said it would launch. The Indianapolis Business Journal first reported the quiet change in the rollout date, which came to light in a Board of Public Works meeting held during the day and was not communicated directly to residents.
A spokesperson for Hogsett, a Democrat who will have finished his third and likely final term by the time the program rolls out, declined to comment on the change, deferring to the Indianapolis Department of Public Works.
When asked what prompted the change in timeline, Indy DPW officials did not directly answer the question, citing ongoing negotiations with potential solid waste providers.
“Contracts for new recycling services will go into effect in 2026, as planned. We are currently in active negotiations regarding the contracts for new solid waste services and cannot discuss this in further detail due to the procurement process,” Kyle Bloyd, Indy DPW Chief Communications Officer, told Mirror Indy in an emailed statement.
The city has contracts with private haulers Waste Management and Republic Services that allows households to subscribe to curbside recycling service at a rate of about $99 per year. Indy DPW handles the bulk of the city’s trash pickup.
How we got here
In 2019, the city released a 90-page report detailing plans to boost its sustainability efforts, including by providing universal curbside recycling to all residents by 2025.
That rollout date was later moved to 2026 to coincide with new contracts with solid waste providers that are set to take effect that year. As Bloyd noted, the city is still in active negotiations with solid waste services for those contracts.
It’s unclear exactly when or why 2028 became the new target date, but the city’s efforts to offer curbside recycling have been hampered for years, in part due to its reliance on burning trash.
In the 1980s, the city worked with a private company — New Jersey-based Ogden Martin Systems, later renamed Covanta — to build an incinerator, which was seen as the best option for reducing landfill waste. By 1988, the incinerator on Harding Street on the southwest side was burning trash, and the city bought steam energy produced by the incinerator at a reduced rate to provide heating and cooling to buildings in the downtown area.
A clause in the contract required the city to deliver more than 300,000 tons of waste per year to the incinerator or else pay a penalty, which recycling advocates said effectively discouraged the practice of recycling.
In 2014, when the city’s deal with Covanta was set to expire, the Board of Public Works approved a 10-year contract with the company to continue burning trash. One board member who voted against the contract said he felt board members weren’t given proper notice prior to the vote, and environmental advocates feared the deal would discourage the city’s effort to implement curbside recycling, according to news reports at the time.
A public recycling receptacle sits full Jan. 10, 2025, at Garfield Park. The city announced that its universal curbside recycling program won’t begin until 2028, three years later than it was originally projected to launch. (Photo Credit: Jenna Watson/Mirror Indy)
A similar scenario played out again, 10 years later, at a Board of Public Works meeting earlier this month.
Toward the end of that meeting, the board was asked to vote on a contract with Reworld, formerly known as Covanta, to continue burning trash to create steam energy through 2035. The contract was not included on the board’s agenda but was introduced as a “walk-on” item just prior to the meeting, meaning no one from the public received notice that such a significant decision would be discussed and approved.
“This is a policy decision to burn trash for another 10 years, and we’re making it by an appointed board. It’s a bigger decision than the Board of Public Works,” said board member Daniel Haake, who voted against the contract.
The board voted 4-3 to approve an agreement to continue burning trash until 2035.
While the new contract removed the minimum tonnage requirement put in place in the 1980s, recycling advocates were frustrated to see the new 10-year deal get rubber-stamped at the same time universal curbside recycling is being delayed.
“We feel like we’re not moving forwards, and if anything, we’re moving backwards,” said Pam Francis, board president for Circular Indiana, a nonprofit formerly known as the Indiana Recycling Coalition that focuses on education and advocacy around recycling.
How to move forward
Dan Boots, a Democratic councilor who represents parts of the north side, hears often from constituents who wonder why the city doesn’t have curbside recycling.
Boots said he was “disheartened” to learn about the delayed rollout from a news article rather than directly from city officials.
He was also surprised to learn recently that the city’s solid waste fee, a $32 annual charge that appears on resident tax bills, hasn’t been raised since 1989.
“I’m amazed that in our search for revenue that this was an area that seemed to have been ignored,” Boots said. “You do the math, and you can see why the city feels constrained.”
Indy’s solid waste fee is far lower than in neighboring municipalities. Residents in Fishers pay about $195 per year, and Carmel residents pay $176 per year, with annual increases of about $1 per year.
An increase in the fee would require council approval, and doing so would be an unpopular decision. Additionally, Hogsett has sought to avoid raising taxes during his tenure, though this is technically a fee.
Indy remains behind the curve
About 33,000 households — less than 12% of property owners — subscribe to curbside recycling in Indianapolis, according to the city’s 2022 waste minimization study, which offers the most recently available public data on residential recycling.
Aaron Thomas, the Garfield Park resident, recently came back from a trip to Japan, where recycling is prolific and public trash cans are scarce. That nation has made a concerted effort to eliminate public trash cans, both to reduce littering and as a security measure.
Thomas wondered whether Indianapolis can ever get on that level, then thought better of it.
“Is Marion County ready to make those sacrifices and inconveniences?” he asked rhetorically. “I doubt it.”
Peter Blanchard covers local government. Reach him at 317-605-4836 or peter.blanchard@mirrorindy.org. Follow him on X @peterlblanchard.
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Featured image: Arturo Fernandez drops off cardboard Jan. 10, 2025, at the public recycling receptacles at Garfield Park. Fernandez is from Sacramento but since mid-December, he has been staying in Bates-Hendricks, where he is setting up an Airbnb. He’s been making regular trips to the center, since he has not yet opted into curbside recycling. (Photo Credit: Jenna Watson/Mirror Indy)
