Infinitus Energy has its eye on us.

The Plantation-based company is the parent of the $35 million Infinitus Renewal Energy Park in Montgomery, Ala., and has a two-year contract with the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority to process recyclables.

The deal was necessitated by the closure of West Florida Recycling, which processed recyclables for the ECUA, the City of Pensacola, Escambia and Santa Rosa counties until it closed in April.

“We are under intense investigations as to how we would site a facility in that area,” said Kathleen Yonce, chief business development officer for the company. “At this point we are being flooded with inquiries and we need to go through the proper discussion and figure out where the valid opportunities lie.”

Yonce said those “inquiries” have come from southern Alabama and north Florida. She said they have talked with the City of Pensacola; they have “not directly” talked to Escambia County officials; and they have not heard from Santa Rosa County.

All of those entities relied on West Florida to process recycling that residents dutifully sorted. But West Florida filed for bankruptcy protection citing more than $1 million in outstanding debt, a volatile market for recyclables and long-standing drainage issues at the company’s North Palafox Street processing center.

After that, ECUA was the only local entity that continued to take recyclables to a place where they could actually be recycled. The other entities took recyclables to the Perdido Landfill with regular trash.

City negotiating with Infinitus

ECUA trucked recyclables to Marietta, Ga., and then to Infinitus’ facility in Montgomery, which handles that city’s garbage and recycling collection. At the end of May, board members signed off on a two-year contract with the $35 million, 82,000-square-foot facility, sits on 75 acres of land and employs 110 people.

Pensacola Mayor Ashton Hayward said IREP is analyzing the city’s recyclables and determine a fee it will charge for processing recyclables based on that analysis. he and City Councilman Larry Johnson toured the Montgomery facility on June 5.

Via his electronic newsletter, Hayward said “I am committed to putting in place a long-term solution for our City’s recycling program, but my immediate focus is on finding solutions that can be kept in place for the estimated two or more years it will take to develop and implement a more permanent plan.

“I am currently working to negotiate a formal agreement with iREP in order to keep our recycling program operating in its current form until a long-term solution for recyclable processing can be established closer to our area. I am also looking for ways to manage the increased cost of the program until another option is available.”

In the meantime, residents are urged to keep sorting recyclables.

Looking for a location “to suit the widest need”

Yonce said the company is looking at “a location to suit the widest need.” Given the fact that there is no recycling processor between tallahassee and nearly New Orleans, Yonce said locations in Alabama and Northwest Florida would be under consideration.

The company’s Montgomery facility is single-stream: The recyclables are not separated out from the regular trash before they are collected. Equipment and technology in the plant allows for an 80 percent recovery rate of recyclables from garbage.

“I think it’s important that people understand we are not looking to replace mature curbside programs,” Yonce said.

Recycling is a growing hot topic in local politics.

ECUA has submitted an RFP to Santa Rosa County Commissioners, as has Waste Management, for the chance to handle that county’s recycling. There is no clear timetable for Santa Rosa commissioners to consider that; their next meeting is June 9.

John Asmar was hired by Escambia County Interim Administrator Larry Newsom in April for six months to serve as the county’s “special projects manager.”

Among those duties will include negotiating with ECUA over the future of the county’s recycling program. Among the proposals that could be considered is building a recycling facility at the county-owned Perdido Landfill.

Asmar is Hayward’s former chief of staff and was a contentious figure in City Hall during his time there.

[progresspromise]