Modifications Result in Lower Costs
The Metro Public Works Division of Waste Management in Nashville has cited recycling program modifications for lowering its costs.
The division will save $12 million in 2003 because of increased public participation in recycling efforts and better tracking and communication systems.
The household recycling program now being implemented in Nashville’s Urban Services District is expected to save nearly $12 million in garbage disposal costs next year, resulting in net savings of more than $10.5 million for total garbage and recycling collection costs. Garbage collection routes will match recycling collection routes, which are more efficient and less expensive than the previous routes, by 2004.
The cost of operating the 13 drop-off centers has decreased during the past two fiscal years, while the tonnage of recyclables collected has increased, despite the closing of two locations. Costs per customer have deceased from $23.53 to $8.37 during the past two fiscal years as the number of customers at Nashville’s two convenience centers has more than doubled.
"Metro’s Waste Management Division is in the process of streamlining its operations, and we have already begun to see some positive results," Chace Anderson, assistant director of public works, says.
GBB Inc., Fairfax, Va., advised Metro Waste. GBB’s Harvey Gershman says, "The mayor’s solid waste plan [is] achieving the performance and cost expectations we helped conceptualize and bring forward with careful planning, procurement and contracting, as well as accurate execution by Chace Anderson’s organization."
Copies of the division’s annual report are available at www.nashville.gov/recycle.
Grocery Chain Wins Recycling Award
Grocery store chain Hannaford Bros. Co. has been named "Recycler of the Year" by the Recycling Committee at Regional Waste Systems (RWS), Portland, Maine, a non-profit solid waste corporation owned by 27 Maine communities. RWS operates the state’s largest municipal recycling program
The Scarsborough-based retailer operates 46 supermarkets and two large distribution centers in Maine. Hannaford achieved a 65 percent recycling rate at its Maine facilities in 2001.
Hannaford encourages customers to reuse bags by providing a five-cent refund for reuse of fabric bags and a two-cent refund for each reuse of plastic or paper bags.
The company continues to look at ways to expand its successful corporate organics diversion program. Any Maine store that participates in the company’s composting program will see its recycling rate jump to more than 90 percent annually, Hannaford officials say.
"Hannaford is committed to reducing its waste through creative recycling initiatives," Ted Brown, Hannaford's environmental affairs manager, says.
California Urges Reuse of CampaignMaterials from California Department of Conservation’s (DOC) beverage container recycling campaign featuring the tagline, "Recycle. It’s Good for the Bottle. It’s Good for the Can," are available to recyclers throughout the country to license for use in their own municipalities.
Carol Dahmen, communications director for the California DOC, told the National Recycling Coalition's Recycling Tip Sheet, "Bottle and can recycling is an important cause in every state, whether they have a bottle bill or not. Making California’s recycling campaign materials available to other states is a cost efficient and time saving way to promote bottle and can recycling throughout the nation."
Readers interested in learning more about using California’s outreach campaign materials should contact Gene Harm at (916) 323-1886 or visit www.bottlesandcans.com.
Canadian Province Adds Container Recycling Fee
The province of Alberta has begun imposing a "container recycling fee" for plastic and glass beverage containers. Aluminum cans, however, will not see an increased fee.
The Alberta Beverage Container Recycling Corp. (ABCRC) sponsors the program and says the fee is based on the net cost to process and recycle beverage containers.
The goal of the recycling fee is to cover the difference between the costs of the beverage container recycling system and the money from unredeemed deposits. According to ABCRC, the system needs around $15 million more a year than the two funding sources generate.
The container recycling fee in non-refundable, although deposits remain fully refundable. The fee is similar to charges levied in British Columbia and Saskatchewan. Critics of the policy, however, say that the non-refundable fee is a tax.
For larger plastic bottles and most glass bottles, the cost is seven cents per container. On smaller juice boxes and drink pouches, the charge is two cents.
Explore the October 2002 Issue
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