A Recycling Mosaic

The dark clouds over some regional recycling efforts trace back to state programs that face tightening budgets. With tax revenues slipping and spending under scrutiny, recycling programs are often among the first to come under attack.

Every cloud has its silver lining, of course. It might take an optimistic person to stand bare-headed in the storm and search for rainbows, but some are to be found, especially in the metals market.

MUNICIPAL MICROSCOPE. With tighter budgets, some municipalities want to treat curbside programs as profit centers rather than services. The result is that bean counters are looking closely at the cost and return on curbside pickup.

In Virginia, for example, the Southeastern Peninsula Regional Authority (SPRA) intended to abolish curbside recycling.

This met with chagrin from the Virginia Recycling Association. At its annual meeting in Williamsburg late last year, the VRA allotted $6,000 toward a "Save Curbside" program. The goal of the program is to highlight the benefits – at all levels – of curbside recycling.

This could end up as a success story, however. Michael Benedetto, vice president of TFC (Tidewater Fibre Corp.) Recycling, which handles 13,000 tons of paper per month, notes the Save Curbside program is a success. Citizens voiced broad financial support for recycling. SPRA acknowledged public response and agreed to continue the curbside program in some fashion. By spring, SRPA should decide on whether to go with drop boxes only, with an 18-gallon bin or with an automated pickup system.

Money is a factor. "The last four or five years, the economy has been flat and recycling is sensitive to that," notes Mike Forster, Alabama State Recycling Coordinator. "It seems like we’ve peaked in recycling collection."

Murray Griffin, president of the Georgia SWANA chapter, agrees about the flat outlook. "It looks like status quo for now," he says. While he has not seen any municipalities abandoning their recycling programs, there is not a lot of growth, either. "We won’t see growth unless there is new legislation or some economic incentive," Griffin says. He is vice president and a professional engineer at Jordan, Jones, Goulding, a firm that designs solid waste systems.

In the 1990s, counties across the region did extensive long-term solid waste planning. Landfills that did not conform to the EPA’s Subtitle D provisions closed. Alabama, for example, went from 105 to fewer than 30 landfills in five years. Now the focus on waste reduction has changed. "Communities just have different priorities," Forster says. "It’s not meant to be negative or positive, just different. They worry about budgets, schools, crime. Lack of landfills has died down as an issue."

Successful cities seem to treat curbside programs as part of the city’s services. Montgomery, Forster’s hometown, just added PET, HDPE and steel cans to its curbside program of paper and glass. Auburn started a drop-off center that handles batteries and compost.

Still, many newly elected officials know recyclables have some value and hope to turn recycling into a profit center. They do not see recycling as a service, in the same category as fire, police or parks.

In Florida, state workers were told they can no longer recycle colored paper at work. The blue bin near each worker’s desk now is for white paper only, with the hope that a clean white grade of office paper will yield the highest return.

The recycling program for Florida State Agencies had not changed for 10 years. Yet, the state found its markets for recycled materials changed significantly. Early on, the state figured its recycling program actually generated revenue after the cost of hauling and processing material. Today, the state points its finger at a worldwide drop in market prices for recycled paper and the increased costs of transportation to haul mixed office paper to local processors.

By moving away from mixed office paper collection to white office paper and corrugated cardboard, the State Agency Recycling Program hopes to become more cost-effective and self-sufficient in the near future and save the state money.

While things have slowed down in paper, they definitely are not hopeless. "Balance is a good word right now," says Joel Litman of Texas Recycling/Surplus, Dallas. He notes that generation is down— both in office-produced paper and from commercial printing—but adds that nobody is panicking. "Generation is not strong. Demand is not high. Things are in balance."

For commercial recyclers, the good news is that material continues to flow. "Material is moving. Everything is in balance right now," Litman continues. While the domestic market for newsprint is off, export is moving. That off-shore pulping is keeping markets afloat.

Benedetto sees the same trend at his company’s four Virginia plants. "Material is moving well for export," he says. "Domestic mills have curtailed acceptance of materials." This caps price, too.

However, Benedetto says this winter is nowhere near as bad as last year. He calls 2002 "the worst winter ever."

Raleigh, for example, last year increased its recycling pickups from twice a month to bi-weekly, thus adding four or five collections a year. This year, they are considering weekly pickup. The impetus here is a new material recovery facility (MRF) that Waste Management is opening. This may allow the city to move from source-separation to commingling, too.

While there was some slippage in participation, particularly in smaller communities in the western part of the state, Mouw is focusing on reinvigorating existing programs. High Point, N.C., is one city undertaking a major push to increase participation. This leverages dollars already spent.

Not only do curbside markets benefit when commodity prices increase, but small peddlers are attracted back into the market. The metals market in Arkansas is one that recently got a boost.

"Material is moving for this time of year – mainly due to the good weather we’ve had around here," says Mike Ronnel, vice president, Metal Recycling Corp., Little Rock. They were spared the worst of this year’s winter weather, and both ferrous and nonferrous material flow is good.

"Prices are up on both ferrous and nonferrous, and flow is higher than usual for this time of year," Ronnel says. This is in marked contrast to some other areas of the country and even spots elsewhere in the Southeast.

"You’ve got to be an optimist. The feeling is there is growing demand and not enough supply," Ronnel continues. "People have gotten out of the industry over the past five years, so there is not as much production."

It has not hurt that demand for product, especially ferrous scrap, has driven prices on scrap up 10 percent or more, depending on the grade of material. The mild winter in Arkansas encouraged peddlers to get back out and run their routes.

In Mississippi, Ben Morris, president of Morris Recycling Inc., New Albany, sees similar trends. "Things are holding pat," he says. That doesn’t mean he has steady sailing. In the same month recently, one plant tripled its scrap generation while another generating customer closed its doors forever.

"Remember 100 years ago merchants used to hang out signs that said, ‘Gone West?’" Morris says. "Today those signs say ‘Gone to Mexico or China.’" The phenomenon is one with which scrap dealers in other parts of the country are sadly familiar.

Consumption has also shifted overseas in many cases, with copper scrap consumption having moved to China in particular. Still, Morris says he feels good about both the ferrous and nonferrous markets, though the latter is under more pressure. His company has survived the shakeout of1998-2000.

With the Southern presence of Nucor and the mini-mills, he feels better about the future. Of course, the new mills invite competition, too. More out-of-state dealers are shipping material into the region — one that used to be a fairly exclusive market. On the other hand, Morris says he is doing more river shipping than ever.

Material is moving in other commodity areas, as well.

"Electronics products stewardship is an issue with environmental groups," Mouw says. "If there is one area we might see some environmental legislation, that is it."

Last year, North Carolina considered an Electronics bill that required an advance disposal fee. This year, similar legislation will likely focus on a take-back scheme for computers and electronics equipment.

Farther south, Florida is focusing on the cathode ray tube (CRT) found in almost every television and computer monitor as the most problematic material in the end-of-life electronics waste stream. This is due to the lead content in CRTs.

Florida’s Department of Environmental Protection says CRTs in televisions and computer monitors are the largest source of lead in the state’s municipal solid waste stream. A three-year contract was signed by Florida’s Department of Management Services that provides for collection, de-manufacturing and recycling of end-of-life electronic equipment. Included are computers, computer monitors and CRTs, peripheral equipment, televisions, telephones and other recoverable and or reusable electronic equipment generated by State of Florida agencies. That contract comes up for renewal on June 18, 2003.

Included in its scope are county agencies, local county boards of public instruction, municipal authorities and state universities. Under terms of the current contract, monitors and terminals run $8.75 (including freight and transportation); tabletop TVs greater than 19-inches, $28; TVs fewer than 19 inches, $12; printers, $4; copiers, $28 and phones, $2.

Couple those figures with the savings on storage space—which can be significant in a downtown office—and it may be enough to keep the accountants happy with writing off electronics and shipping units off for recycling.

Just when things looked bleak, though, Forster came across a glass insulation manufacturer looking for material. And the facility was willing to take colored glass or plate glass – two problem children in most recycling streams. That initiative is one he will be shepherding in 2003.

Tires are tough to handle, too. Outside of Huntsville, Ala., where there is a MSW incinerator and full recycling program, tires remain a challenge to recycle. Alabama figures there are 800 illegal dumps in its 67 counties, with tires the most common problem. Two northern counties, Madison and Morgan, recently started a grant program to ship tires to Huntsville. Since tires have almost the same BTU value as coal, they are used to produce steam that is sold to the federal Redstone Arsenal facility.

Perhaps a third of the state’s tires are burned as fuel. Another third are still landfilled. But elsewhere in the state, about one-third of the tires are illegally dumped. This problem is exacerbated by the number of out-of-staters who dump tires in Alabama, the state’s officials contend.

To help protect the state from the problem, lawmakers in Alabama are looking at scrap tire legislation that will help clean up the illegal dumps.

DOWN THE ROAD. "We’re all under budget constraints," Mouw says. "It’ll be a rough fiscal year both at the state level and for local governments." In terms of budget constraints, he could be speaking for the private sector as well as the public.

Whatever the economy, those committed to recycling for the long term should see sunnier skies across the Southeast as the year wears on.

"You will start to see more metal moving," Ronnel predicts. Most would agree, but the flow may be herky-jerky.

"We’ve seen unprecedented spikes of increased flow and then severe slowdowns," Morris says. "But the last six months have been fairly consistent." Like Mouw and others in the Southeast, he is upbeat. "We’re seeing small signs of improvement," Morris says. "You’ve got to be optimistic."

In Georgia, Griffin says it is quite unlikely there will be any new legislation passing. The Department of Community Affairs will revisit state solid waste planning goals for the solid waste management plan. However, like the rest of the Southeast, it is unlikely 2003 will see any compelling mandates or bills.