One Shreveport Councilman is a Definite ‘No’ on New Recycling Plan. Here’s Why

Shreveport Councilman John Nickelson explains the delay in the vote on a new city recycling plan and why he'll say no when it comes to a vote.

The Council delayed a vote on the proposal to award a new recycling contract to C. Edwards Concepts.

Here's what Nickelson told KEEL about the status of the proposal:

"Several members of the Council were concerned about the COVID surge and requested we have a Zoom meeting, said Nickelson, "The legislation that permits us to have virtual meetings allows us to consider only legislation that is time sensitive or an emergency. The (recycling vote) is neither time sensitive or an emergency so we cannot consider it until we are in-person again."

And when asked his position on the proposal, Nickelson's response was immediate. "I am against it for a number of reasons," he said, "The contract that fell through last year required only a collection of the materials in the blue (recycle) bins. It didn't require, under terms of the contract, that anything be recycled, just that it be delivered to a recycling facility.

"I expressed my position...that any recycling agreement we enter needs to be comprehensive. It needs to make sure that we're actually recycling the trash we're having our citizens sort. We still haven't worked out an agreement that makes sense no matter who the contractor is."

Nickelson then talks about his reservations with Charlette Edwards and C. Edwards Concepts a deal that, if approved, would pay Edwards $1.9 million annually for five years. "The contractor selected has no experience, no equipment, no trucks and is not in a good position to collect recyclable materials from 180,000 people."

"The request for proposal that I have reviewed is very general and does not explain with specificity how she would accomplish the job."