Filling in the blanks: municipalities must increasingly cost-justify programs that keep recyclables out of the landfill

Recycling Today, March, 2005 by Dan Sandoval

Despite recycling having become common activity for most people, the municipal recycling sector is struggling. Possibly because of a lack of attention some municipalities have shown to the high cost of the process, some cities are viewing the cost and benefits of recycling with a jaded eye.

While many residents clamor for widespread recycling, some municipalities with ample landfill space and inexpensive tipping fees must look at whether it makes sense to push recycling. The issue becomes even more contentious in communities that are forced to make significant cuts to their overall budgets as they grapple with a more austere environment.

TIPPING THE SCALES

While many cities have moved back and forth with their recycling programs (e.g. New York City), a host of cities in areas where landfill tip fees are not as high are experiencing a lack of commitment to maintaining or growing their programs.

One of the biggest success stories has been Minneapolis. Susan Young, director of Minneapolis' recycling program, says the city has done an outstanding job of not only diverting a greater amount of material, but also of making the recycling program an effective money maker.

Young, in fact, points out that the city of Minneapolis has had great success with its program despite running counter to the prevailing recycling trends.

The city credits much of the recycling program's success to its attention to detail. While more cities are moving toward single-stream collection programs, Minneapolis operates a strictly source-separated program. Further, the city has been able to track the results of the program, recording tonnage volumes and other numbers for the operation.

As a result, end consumers seek out the city's recyclables because of the cleanliness of the collected material, allowing the city to keep investing in its program.

Young succinctly says that Minneapolis has been able to achieve a high level of success because the city treats the recycling program as a business and applies a rigorous approach to ensure the program makes financial sense.

However, the recycling programs in many Great Plains states are less attentive when collecting recyclables.

While the signals are mixed concerning the success of municipal collection, many in the public and private sector are working to overcome the overall malaise that appears to be afflicting this sector.

Waste Management Inc., based in Houston, is the largest collector and processor of curbside recyclables in the country. Through its Recycle America Alliance (RAA) subsidiary, the company operates 80 recycling plants and provides marketing of recyclables from more than 140 locations in the U.S. and Canada.

Richard Abramowitz, a regional marketing manager for RAA, says that while he knows of some municipal collection programs scaling back or closing, he doesn't necessarily consider it a trend.

He says that some programs have expanded and that high landfill costs have not always been the driving factor.

The city of Dallas, which also owns its own landfill, recently expanded its program. The pressure to expand and enhance the city's recycling program was driven more by "peer pressure to have a better program," Abramowitz says. Another "selling point," he says, is the potential to increase the life of the landfill.

For communities that do not own their own landfills, the move toward increasing recycling levels may be driven more by economics, even if collection costs are not as high.

CHALLENGING ATMOSPHERE

Jake Anderson, president of Millenium Recycling, Sioux Falls, S.D., has seen the difficulty in developing an effective recycling program in that city. One big problem, he says, is that many of the haulers who service residential customers in the city resist recycling mandates.

"The city has [had little] involvement in the recycling industry," Anderson says. "The hauling community is in charge of collecting the material." And, because of low landfill tip fees in South Dakota, haulers may feel there is little incentive to pursue recycling opportunities.

However, the city of Sioux Falls is starting to take a stronger position on enforcement of existing recycling legislation. Anderson says the city must become more involved in inspecting waste haulers' trucks at landfills to keep more recyclables out of the waste stream. While the present collection program allows individual haulers to work directly with individual residences, some type of standardization is also needed to allow for an increase in the amount of recyclables collected.

Steve Andrews with the Nebraska State Recycling Association says that presently there is a minimal increase in the recovery level in the state. While a number of cities in the state are coming online with their own curbside programs, Andrews also stresses the need to educate the residents as to the benefits of boosting recycling.

He notes that Omaha, one of the few large cities in the state, is moving toward a single-stream collection program.

With a variety of collection methods at their disposal, recycling advocates in low-cost landfill areas such as the Great Plains states are finding ways to keep recyclable material out of the landfill and in the recycling loop.