SEASIDE — City councilors are considering new locations to dispose of glass after Recology announced it would be closing the recycling depot on Avenue S due to illegal dumping.

Over the past year, city staff have had numerous conversations about the unauthorized dumping on the site, which worsened after a city-sanctioned homeless encampment was established adjacent to the depot.

Several residents and businesses close to the camp and depot have shared concerns about unlawful disposal and requested the depot’s closure or relocation.

“I don’t think it’s news to anyone on our council that we’ve had issues with illegal dumping at the recycling depot that’s next to our homeless camp,” City Manager Spencer Kyle said at a meeting last week. “It’s my understanding that there’s probably been some of that for a long time, but it’s especially been problematic since the relocation of our homeless camp.”

When city staff reached out to Recology to discuss ways to mitigate the illegal dumping, the company responded that the depot’s proximity to the encampment had resulted in significant and persistent amounts of trash dumped in the area, and that the levels of garbage and contamination necessitated closure.

Katie Hardesty, Recology’s operations manager, said staff had been struggling with trying to manage a vast amount of garbage at the site, including an influx of refrigerators, mattresses, couches and garage doors being dumped.

“The recycling is contaminated a lot of the time,” she said. “The lock has been cut off the back because we lock it shut to keep people from getting in it, and it’s cut off and garbage is put in, or it’s cut off and then gone through for whatever might have a monetary value.”

Recology suggested providing a new glass-only depot — prohibiting cardboard waste — at a location of the city’s choosing in order to meet Oregon Department of Environmental Quality requirements.

“There are a couple of options for this service,” the company told staff. “We have a 6-yard container with locking cathedral lids ready to go to a new location … You can elect to have it placed permanently at a location and we would provide weekly service, or you could have it brought down for a certain number of days.”

Oregon recycling laws require the city to offer a recycling option to its residents, which is currently done through Recology’s curbside recycling service. But unlike in Astoria — where Recology partners with Green Waste Services for glass recycling equipment and personnel — the service does not include glass recycling.

Including glass recycling in curbside services would result in significant cost increases, and councilors expressed concerns about whether service just a few days a week would be sufficient, especially during the summer.

“In my previous cities I had worked at, they did not have curbside glass recycling, and so they had glass recycling containers in the parking lots of local parks. That’s where we did it,” Kyle said. “And that could be an option here.”

He also suggested relocating the glass-depot box to the south end of the parking lot at the airport, which he said is empty most of the time and is somewhat out of the way.

“It may seem less convenient to our residents,” he said. “But you have to drive to get there anyways … The downside of that is less eyes on it, and so if we’re trying to prevent illegal dumping, the best practice is to put it in the most public space possible.”

Councilors Tita Montero and Seth Morrisey said that another option for glass disposal would need to be in place before the recycling depot closed.

Mayor Steve Wright said the city would need significant notice — at least a month — before the depot closed, and that signs would need to be posted notifying the public of the situation.

“I would, maybe even, once we make that decision, put the glass box in immediately wherever we decide it’s going to go,” he said. “And so people have that opportunity as soon as they hear ‘Oh, that’s going to close, I’ll try the new place.’

“My concern too is for the downtown businesses that create a whole lot of cardboard, we need to find some kind of a solution for them.”