Rethinking Recycling

In June, I wrote to explain my vote against mandatory recycling in American Fork. (See post here.) Among other things, I wrote that residents would have until August 31 to opt out of the recycling program. This much has proven false -- tomorrow night's agenda, that of the last Council meeting before August 31, makes no mention of a recycling ordinance. I deduce hereby that the program is on hold until further notice.

Last Friday I accepted an invitation to tour the material recovery facility (recycling center) of Waste Management, a national provider with a strong presence in Utah, and was impressed by what I saw. I toured with members of the North Pointe Solid Waste Special Service District (SWSSD) board, led by the highly estimable Rodger Harper, district manager.

I learned that I have been asking the wrong questions about recycling.

Here's what I learned:

Landfills are, well, filling up, which is why the North Pointe board has commissioned a thirty-year study. The study, to be concluded in November 2008, will point to next steps for the north county's waste management programs.

While the study has yet to be completed, this much is known: The North Pointe transfer station handles 220,000 tons of refuse per year, including construction and demolition dumping. This figure translates to 4 pounds per person per day, a figure which is equivalent to the national average.

From the transfer station in Lindon, waste is hauled to landfills where the district pays $4.5 million annually in tipping fees. As Mr. Harper points out, the highly attainable goal of 30 percent household recycling could reduce that sum by at least $1 million per year, and would delay and reduce the need to open new landfills.

This creates a clear financial incentive to local governments such as ours to promote recycling.

Recycling centers relieve stress on landfills, but they are also key producers in a commodities market which, though it fluctuates from year to year, is becoming consistently profitable.

When I moved to Utah (ten years ago this month), I was told that recycling was not cost-effective here because of the distance between our desert communities and secondary markets. Mr. Harper says the situation has changed in the last ten years, due to a number of factors. Better sorting technology has reduced processing costs, and Utah's population has grown to the point where significant economies of scale are emerging. Meanwhile, the market demand for recycled commodities is increasing as new technologies are developed and as more foreign players enter the market. China and India, in particular, are clamoring for recycled goods to feed their manufacturing industries, to the point that prices for recycled cardboard have doubled over the last four years.

Waste Management, whose facility we toured, reports that twenty percent of its sales go overseas.

At this facility, commodities are sorted and bundled, then sold to manufacturers. Sale prices are usually sufficient to cover the cost of hauling, sorting, and handling recyclables. The only cost left to be paid is curbside pick-up.

The free market will not sustain recycling centers if they operate at a loss, so the cost of curbside pick-up must be passed along somewhere. Local governments, increasingly, are finding they have a compelling financial interest in recycling -- as does ours, when we consider the financial and public health costs of opening new landfills. So the tab for curbside collection is picked up by local governments, and is generally passed on to residents in the form of pick-up fees.

American Fork, which has a fourteen percent take-rate, must charge $4.50 per month for collection. Orem and Lehi, who have universal recycling, are able to spread the cost among more residents and reduce the monthly fee to $3.00.

My question -- Does it cost more to landfill recyclables or to haul them to distant markets? -- was the wrong question. Local governments do not assume the hauling cost; that cost is borne by the purchaser.

In terms of the big picture, I still believe it pays to ask whether hauling with fossil fuels is the best thing for our environment -- but so long as our nation remains dependent on its highway transportation system, our City Council isn't going to make a meaningful difference by landfilling in order to keep a few trucks off the road.

If City staff does come back with that ordinance, I still want to see more complete information. Among other things, I want to know whether American Fork is paying reasonable rates for its collection service, or whether the City could save money by using the North Pointe SWSSD transer station. (Allied Waste, the City's provider, has its own transfer station and landfill.)

Still, my eyes were opened by this tour, and I can highly recommend the tour to you. Waste Management of West Jordan welcomes Boy Scout and other tour groups by appointment (call 801-280-8200 for further information).

Here's what you'll see:

Some 60 tons of mixed plastics, metals, and paper are dumped on the plant floor each day, where a large loader lifts the tonnage onto a conveyer belt leading to a V screen. The V screen uses a magnet to send ferrous materials in one direction, and uses air to blow the lighter-weight materials (newsprint, grocery bags, aluminum cans) to a new conveyor belt.
I saw two separate conveyor belts whose contents were sorted by hand. One belt handled milk jugs and similar heavy-weight materials; the belt of this picture handles the light-weight materials. About five different containers were arranged ergonomically around each worker, so that he or she could sort quickly and comfortably. The plant is run by forty employees.
Mountains of bailed pop bottles are now ready for market. This facility sends just twelve percent of its input to landfills. Of this, seven percent is too small for the machinery to sort; the other five percent is rubbish which consumers mistakenly discard with their recyclables. The remaining eighty-eight percent goes to market.