City attorney instructed to pursue action against recycling business

In the more than three years since Commissioner Jen Ahearn-Koch raised the issue of a debris recycling business endangering the health, safety and welfare of residents of Central Cocoanut, little has been done to mitigate the conditions there.

Although within the Sarasota city limit, the city has little leverage over U.S. Recycling, and its continued release of alleged toxic dust and other pollutants coating homes, cars and most likely lungs of nearby residents. That’s because the commercial use is permitted in the industrial zone district. 

Since an August 2022 commission hearing, the city required a wall be built around the 137,754-square-foot site located at 1404 Industrial Court that obscures the operation there from view, but does little else. It also, at taxpayer expense, the city paved Industrial Court, the short, formerly dirt alleyway used by dumps trucks kicking up a constant barrage of dust throughout the hours of operation.

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The company had briefly communicated with city officials, but eventually turned contact over to legal counsel.

“We did spend, I think, somewhere in the neighborhood of $470,000 to concrete the road that I think is heavy enough to move the space shuttle on at this point, and put in new swales to capture and retain some of the dust that was coming out off that site,” said Deputy City Manager Patrick Robinson during the March 2 City Commission meeting in which Ahearn-Koch resurfaced the topic.

The city has no authority over emissions from the site. That is the purview of the Florida Department of Environmental Protection, which has ceded that responsibility to Sarasota County. And yet, 43 months later, little has been done. Although U.S. Recycling allowed its permit to crush concrete — the largest environmental nuisance of its operation — it has contracted that process to another provider and the activity continues.

With no other solution in sight at this time, Ahearn-Koch asked commissioners to consider instructing City Attorney Joe Polzak to pursue the possibility of filing public nuisance litigation against the business.

Her request was approved unanimously.

Photo by Andrew Warfield

U.S. Recycling is already facing possible litigation. In October 2025 the Observer reported Suncoast Waterkeepers issued a notice of intent to sue the business. It cites the company as in violation of the Clean Water Act, alleging stormwater runoff containing elevated levels of pollutants discharged into Hog Creek, a tributary of Sarasota Bay.

Testing of water samples collected next to the facility showed increased levels of aluminum, iron, suspended solids and chemical oxygen demand.

Over the past five years, Robinson told commissioners, staff has coordinated with every pertinent regulatory agency in an attempt to bring closure to the matter. 

“We are the lowest rung in this, but we have been punching above our weight class, trying to get this addressed,” he said. “We've hit a wall with this, and we are not coming up with any appreciable answers that are taking any meaningful action at this point. … It's one of the few issues that have come before our team that we have not been able to move the needle on.”

Polzak advised that all regulatory efforts have been either exhausted or not complied with, leaving the city with no other recourse but to pursue civil action against the company. Exactly what form that will take, he said is subject to investigation. Regardless of the outcome, relief is not likely to come anytime soon. U.S. Recycling is not a consumer-facing business and is therefore immune to public pressure.

“One of the things I think everybody has realized is that courts and lawsuits go on for a long time, and if we prevail in our lawsuit, we may not see results for a couple of years,” said Mayor Debbie Trice.

In speaking to Commissioner Liz Alpert’s motion to pursue a lawsuit, Vice Mayor Kathy Kelley Ohlrich said holding the company accountable is long overdue.

“U.S. Recycling has had many opportunities to demonstrate their interest in the health, welfare and safety of the citizens in our city,” she said. “We have the data. There's no question that it's time. We’ve got to do something, and so this is it.”