Comal County weighs recycling overhaul, tightens mulch drop-off rules after cost analysis

Comal County staff presented a detailed cost analysis on May 15 on options to run the county recycling and mulch programs, and the Commissioners Court adopted a new brush policy that will stop accepting green-waste bags and tie residents’ ability to drop off brush to the county’s on-site mulch inventory.

The report, delivered by Robert Boyd, a county staff member, examined nine options ranging from continuing single-stream collection at the Rural Recycling Center to reopening remote recycling sites with separated streams for cardboard and aluminum. Boyd said audits at a local materials-recovery facility (MRF) showed high contamination for single-stream loads and drove much of the analysis. "The first audit was all single stream and we had a 35% contamination rate," Boyd said during the workshop presentation. He told commissioners the county could instead focus on baling cardboard and aluminum or place compactors at selected sites.

Why it matters: the county must weigh operating costs, likely revenues and community access. Single-stream recycling requires large trucks and staff; commodity prices have fallen, making single-stream processing more expensive. The county’s mulch operation also has fire-safety and inventory constraints that affect whether residents can drop off brush and take mulch.

Key decisions and context Boyd told the court that the county’s mulching site is organized into six pile locations with a maximum inventory of about 26,667 cubic yards (six piles) produced from roughly 20,000 cubic yards of ground brush. The county will stop accepting brush if…