Longboat Sea Gate resident boxed in over recycling

Ellen Levine wants to recycle her cardboard shipping boxes. But she can’t. Her building won’t allow it.

She has contacted her management office, the condominium board, the town’s Public Works Department and Waste Management in search of a solution.

“They said they would look into it,” Levin said of Sea Gate management. “I’m getting some positive feedback, but I’m not getting any definitive answers.”

The definitive response Levine seeks is why Sea Gate won’t allow her to recycle her shipping boxes and when it will be allowed. Waste Management has told her recycling those boxes is OK, and so has the Public Works Department.

Many other complexes in the area are allowed to recycle boxes, including Longboat Harbour, Beachplace, Positano, Aquarius, Fairway Bay, Sands Point and En Provence condominium associations.

But Sea Gate isn’t. There’s even a sign inside about it, Levine said.

Sea Gate management declined to comment, but condominium association President Bill Nuckols said he is familiar with the issue.

“We don’t have the correct receptacles or enough of them to recycle cardboard boxes at one point,” Nuckols said. “At one point I thought people were saying we weren’t supposed to.”

At issue: sustainability.

Cardboard boxes are one of the most economically and environmentally viable resources Waste Management recycles, said Dawn McCormick, director of communications.

“It just has a market,” McCormick said. “Good clean cardboard can be recycled into additional new cardboard materials.”

Waste Management offers single-stream recycling in the Sarasota-Manatee area, meaning all recyclable goods (except plastic bags) can be put in a single bin, McCormick said. The company sorts the material when it gets to a recycling plant.

Sea Gate has been in contact with Waste Management, McCormick said. The condominium complex struck a deal with the waste company to get access to 2-yard recycling bins that are emptied twice a week. These will replace recycling carts that were emptied once a week, McCormick said.

Levine said she is hoping this will help mitigate the problem and make her condominium complex more sustainable.

Any condominium complex may upgrade its recycle carts to 2-yard recycle bins for no charge by calling 941-753-7591, McCormick said.