Denton reports big drop in recycling contamination, lays out landfill gas, transfer station and Styrofoam plans

Brian Bernersall, the City of Denton’s solid waste director, told the City Council on March 25 that the city’s recycling and diversion programs have improved substantially over the past year and presented a slate of capital and operational projects intended to extend landfill life and increase reuse.

Bernersall said Denton collected roughly 35,000 tons of curbside waste, almost 5,200 tons of recyclables and about 8,800 tons of yard waste in fiscal 2023–24. He reported a citywide per-person waste generation rate of about 4.4 pounds per day in the most recent year, down from roughly 6 pounds when the city adopted a comprehensive solid waste management strategy three years earlier. “I’m proud to report that in this past year, we’ve actually hit 4.4 pounds,” Bernersall said at the council meeting.

The director credited outreach and cart auditing for sharp declines in recycling contamination — from about 68% in 2021 to 14% in January 2025 and 8% in February 2025. Bernersall highlighted the city’s cart-auditing program and neighborhood education as major drivers: “Because of the timing and when we had to submit this, I wasn’t able to put together an updated slide… February of 2025, we had 8% contamination. That is the cleanest contamination mark,” he said.

Bernersall reviewed several higher-profile initiatives under active consideration or near-term implementation:

- Landfill gas/renewable natural gas (RNG): The city is close to contracting with a third party to clean and compress landfill gas to pipeline-grade RNG for sale into the adjacent pipeline. Bernersall said the landfill already collects gas to a flare and the piping system is in place; the private partner would refine methane to roughly 99.98% and sell into the Atmos pipeline. He described this as a potential new revenue stream for both the solid waste and water departments.

- Transfer station: Denton owns 40 acres south of the landfill site and plans to submit a permit to the state by mid-2025 to begin permitting a transfer-station facility, then proceed to construction once permitted.

- Styrofoam densifier: Staff said a contract for a densifier to compress expanded polystyrene was close to finalization.

- Landfill mining and grinding: The department is evaluating a contract to “mine” materials and increase compaction rates by grinding at the working face; Bernersall said grinding could increase compaction by about 30%, extending landfill life.

- Commercial diversion and enforcement: The city’s commercial diversion ordinance covers about 2,100 commercial customers; as of Jan. 31, staff had approved about 1,120 diversion plans, with roughly 600 customers still outstanding. The department plans targeted outreach through early April and said it will coordinate with Community Improvement on enforcement if properties do not engage.

- Downtown valet collection and commercial organics pilots: A small downtown valet pilot serves 44 customers with back-door service for garbage, recycling and organics; staff have begun a pilot with a private school for commercial organics diversion and said valet services will remain limited in scale.

- Home chemical collection: The department plans to phase out routine curbside point-to-point pickup for home chemical collection, directing more customers to a centralized drop-off facility at the landfill and to periodic community drop-off events. Staff said about two-thirds of customers now use drop-off and three quarters of the weight collected comes from drop-off users; roughly 1,500 annual point-to-point customers remain.

Bernersall also described operational changes ahead of next year’s budget, including reassigning collection days for roughly 1,100 residents (mostly north of U.S. 380/Highway 288 between I-35 and 288) with about two months of public outreach, and exploring carted yard-waste expansion, a material-reuse warehouse for usable bulk items, and centralizing litter and illegal-dump cleanup within the solid waste department.

On landfill capacity, Bernersall said the permitted airspace is about 28% used and, at current disposal rates, the facility has roughly 80 years of capacity; accounting for growth, he said capacity remains north of 50 years.

Council members asked about costs and program design. Several raised concerns about ending point-to-point chemical pickup — Representative from District 3 asked whether charging a fee could encourage drop-offs, and Bernersall said quarterly neighborhood events and communication could mitigate the risk that some people would instead put chemicals in the trash. Council members also pressed on financial feasibility for the grinder and RNG projects; Bernersall said staff will return with cost analyses and timeline estimates.

Why it matters: Denton’s drop in recycling contamination and slower per-person waste generation reduce landfill demand and operating costs, while projects such as RNG sales and transfer-station permitting could create revenue and infrastructure for future growth. The department plans further public outreach before changing collection patterns or starting large capital projects.

Next steps: Staff said it will pursue permitting for the transfer station, advance the RNG contracting discussion and finalize the Styrofoam densifier contract, and return to council with budget requests and financial details in the upcoming budget cycle.