Throwing away plastic bottles, glass, aluminum and paper in the regular trash has been a common practice since Katrina, but in the near future, curbside recycling may become a reality again in St. Tammany Parish.

Beginning Sept. 1, Coastal Waste will begin a curbside recycling service in Abita Springs. The company will pick up plastic, aluminum, paper, and tin, but will not pick up cardboard and glass.

They used to pick up recyclables in Slidell before Katrina, said Coastal Waste accounts manager Niki Cromer, but they were doing it under special conditions. All the equipment for sorting was donated to the nonprofit organization STARC. Coastal did the pickups for free, and all the money from the recycling went to STARC. However, the storm destroyed all of STARC’s equipment, and they didn’t have the money to replace it, so recycling stopped in Slidell. She did not know if Coastal was thinking of recycling in Slidell or Mandeville in the near future. However beginning Sept. 1, the parish’s other garbage company, Waste Management will start a trial test of curbside recycling in the Meadowbrook subdivision of Mandeville.

The Louisiana spokesman for Waste Management, Rene Faucheux said his company was faced with several issues after Katrina that forced them to suspend curbside recycling. The biggest issue was the destruction of the recycling center in New Orleans East by the storm. The facility sorted, and shipped out recyclable materials. Currently, any company doing curbside recycling has to take the materials outside of the metropolitan New Orleans area for sorting, and that is not cheap, especially with the current fuel prices.

Faucheux said the recycling in Mandeville is to see if it is economically feasible for Waste Management.

“We’ll see how that goes and if it works, we will see about doing the rest of the parish,” Faucheux said.

In the meantime, Faucheux suggests that residents who really want to recycle should go to the Web site, www.thinkgreenfromhome.com. The site will give residents tips on how to recycle such items as fluorescent lighting, batteries, and electronics such as computers and televisions.

Faucheux said there are several companies that will recycle such items, but they will not come to a person’s house to pick up the items.

Faucheux said Waste Management is optimistic about bringing curbside recycling back to the parish.

“We are looking very keenly at St. Tammany Parish for recycling services,” he said.

Hoping to start up curbside recycling on the Northshore within the next week is the New Orleans firm, Phoenix Recycling.

They have been doing most of the curbside recycling on the south shore since Katrina. They charge $15 a month and pick up recyclables three times a month.

Steve O’Connor, one of Phoenix Recycling partners, said they will start out doing pickups in Mandeville and Slidell. If they get more interest, they will expand their services to other parts of St. Tammany Parish. But like Waste Management, and Coastal Waste, it is a matter of economics for Phoenix.

Currently, they collect glass, plastic, paper and cardboard, and it all has to be transported to a sorting facility in Baton Rouge, which drives up the company’s operating costs. The only thing Phoenix will not pick up is metal, because it is so hard to sort, O’Conner said.

To save money, Phoenix does all of its business on their Web site, to cut down on office costs. People can sign up on the Web site at www.phoenixrecyclingnola.com. O’Connor said they are “tweaking” the site right now so that Slidell and Mandeville residents can sign up.

He suggests that those interested check the Web site during the next week to make sure service has started on the Northshore.

Slidell and Mandeville residents can also e-mail their requests for service to phoenix.recycling.ns@gmail.com. O’Connor said the company will also be sending out press releases with maps of the proposed routes in the next week or so.

“We do have a lot of interest on the Northshore,” O’Connor said.

Because of costs, Phoenix will only pickup in areas where there are a large group of clients.

“We can’t send a truck out in the middle of the parish for only one customer. That’s not cost-effective,” O’Connor said.

He hopes that the Northshore residents who sign up will tell their neighbors, who will tell their friends and Phoenix can build up a customer base and offer more routes.

Phoenix Recycling has been successful in New Orleans, and O’Connor hopes that success will translate into many clients on the Northshore.

“We are swamped by growth in New Orleans,” O’Connor said. “And we have a gained a lot of experience in recycling.”