Recycling now costs $$$

China has begun refusing to accept recycled materials from the United States, and that loss of a market has affected cities large and small. The effects came to Wake Forest Tuesday when the Public Works Assistant Director Allison Snyder had to explain to the town board that it will cost the town money to proceed with recycling.

The town has a contract with Republic Services to pick up household trash and household recycling – costs covered in the annual property tax. Republic in turn takes the recycled materials to a recycling center, which until recently was rebating some of its profits from resale to Republic.

Because of that rebate, Mayor Vivian Jones said, “Our contract (with Republic) was lower because they were getting that rebate.” That translated into a lower cost for the recycling pickup, which is now $3.51 per month. Town residents recycle about 3,600 tons each year.

There is another problem, Snyder said. There is too much contamination – trash or “residue” – in our recycling bins. “The overall percentage (from other customers) is 12 percent. We are at 18 percent.” The biggest part of that is plastic bags.” (See the article in this issue about Wake Forest banning plastic bags and film in recycling bins.”

Snyder said the town needs to take several steps and already has taken some. Those include updating its online and hard copy Waste Wizard, updating the solid waste guide given to all new residents, and obtaining a grant from the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality to help educate town residents and eliminate bags and other trash in recycling bins.

Snyder said the markets for glass and paper are the most volatile. “Do we eliminate some of the material we collect. Glass is very heavy and the market is based on weight.”

In the meantime, the town has to deal with the fact that Republic has been losing money because of its recycling. Joseph Dehner with Republic Services said that back in 2005 “markets were more favorable.” In the last three or four years, the company has had a contract with Sunoco, and, at the end of 2018 Republic was getting a rebate of between $0 and $15 per ton of comingled recycling.

“Now,” he said, “it is a $40 to $50 per ton processing cost” that Republic has to pay.

Dehner said Republic is now using Recycle America which does separate stream analysis for us. That means they segregate part of the Wake Forest recycling and examine it to see what it contains. The analysis showed that we had 12 percent residue, 22.12 percent cardboard, 20.53 percent paper, 21.10 percent glass and 14.96 percent plastic outside of plastic bags.

Republic asking the town to cover their losses as the town tries to reconfigure its waste stream. That will mean, and the town board approved, rebating Republic for an estimated $36,000 in this fiscal year and $144,000 during fiscal 2019-2020.