HOLT, Fla., April 28, 2023—The recycling center in Escambia County is closed while the facility hires and trains new workers.

Beginning April 14, recycling was no longer accepted at the Emerald Coast Utilities Authority center.

Because this is where Adams Sanitation takes recycling for Okaloosa and Santa Rosa counties, Adams is giving customers the option of putting their recycling out for pickup with regular trash which goes to the landfill or suspending recycling service until ECUA is back online.

Customers can request Adams to not bill them a recycling charge during this time.

Those who wish to have their recycling picked up with their trash can use the recycling bins as well as regular trash bins on regularly scheduled trash days.

According to a news release by ECUA, staff turnover is behind the closure.

During the next four weeks, ECUA will be conducting hiring and training for employment in the recycling facility.

Mixed recyclables such as those collected at the curb cannot be processed safely and effectively until the facility is again operational and fully staffed, according to the release.

Estimated time for the facility to be back in operation is approximately four weeks.

Adams will take all trash to the landfill, including recycling, until about mid-May when the ECUA center is reopened.

In news unrelated to the temporary shutdown, the former recycling manager, Jarrell Lamar Reynolds, was sentenced for racketeering in February after pleading guilty in November 2022 in connection with selling half a million dollars’ worth of recyclables through a shell company he owned.

Reynolds was sentenced to seven years in prison with credit for 31 days’ time served, plus three years’ probation and ordered to pay full restitution of $510,685.05 to ECUA.