Municipal Recycling

Friedman Recycling has opened its third material recovery facility (MRF), which is the company’s first outside of its home state of Arizona.

The El Paso, Texas, MRF processes material collected through the city’s single-stream curbside collection program, which began April 25. During the first four days of the program Friedman took in 1,700 tons of recyclables.

The 45,000-square-foot MRF includes Bollegraaf equipment.

The company’s Morris Friedman says Friedman Recycling received a 15-year contract with the city of El Paso in February of 2006. The length of the contract enabled the company to invest more in the facility, which it broke ground on in December, he says.

The move to single-stream recycling is a first for El Paso, which had previously used drop-off sites for the collection of recyclables.

The city of El Paso handles the collection of the material, while Friedman handles the processing and marketing of the material, which includes common curbside commodities with the exception of glass.

While the MRF focuses on processing material collected from city residents, Friedman says that the company also takes in material from other commercial, business and residential customers. The company also expects to provide shredding services.

The facility also has direct access to a Union Pacific rail siding and is near a number of major arteries, Friedman notes.

Pennsylvania Gov. Edward Rendell has announced that Pennsylvanians recycled a record 4.86 million tons of material in 2005, helping to save $263 million in disposal costs for state residents and generating an estimated market value of $577 million.

"The recycling industry is a significant contributor to Pennsylvania’s economic vitality and environmental health," Rendell says. "We’re building market demand for recyclable materials while benefiting and supporting the communities that collect these materials.

Pennsylvania’s recycling and reuse industry includes more than 3,200 establishments with total annual sales of $18.4 billion. The industry employs more than 81,000 people and has an annual payroll of $2.9 billion.

The employment, payroll and sales numbers are higher than any other state in the Northeast United States and are the second highest in the nation, according to a press release from Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection.

In addition, Pennsylvania’s recycling and reuse industry provides an estimated $1.8 billion in indirect benefits to the economy and a direct impact of $305 million each year through the tax base.

The Hawaii State Department of Health’s (DOH) Solid & Hazardous Waste Branch has issued a Complaint and Order against Reynolds Recycling Inc. for violations of state deposit beverage container (DBC) requirements.

DOH has assessed an administrative penalty of $42,000 against Reynolds Recycling Inc. for its violations of the DBC rules and certification requirements.

From Feb. 24, 2005, through Dec. 28, 2006, Reynolds Recycling violated six DBC requirements at its certified redemption centers on Oahu and Kauai. The company violated the requirements by failing to inspect DBCs for refund eligibility, paying refunds on ineligible containers, improperly estimating container refunds, not checking customer reported counts, repeatedly closing redemption center sites without notice/approval from the DOH and failing to post the required redemption center signs. During this time, DOH says it issued Reynolds Recycling four warning letters and provided ongoing compliance assistance through meetings, phone correspondence and on-site inspections.

DOH evaluated the gravity of DBC violations based on their potential for harm, extent of deviation and the repeated nature of the violations. Also considered were other factors, such as willfulness, negligence, good faith efforts to comply or other unique circumstances.

DOH is not assessing penalties for 2005 because that was the first year of operations, and all redemption centers were in a start-up and adjustment phase.

Reynolds Recycling Inc. has contested the Complaint and Order, and an administrative hearing will be scheduled.

The state of Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Recycling & Litter Prevention has awarded $1.4 million in grants to public/private partnerships that will boost the market for recycled products in Ohio and create 32 new jobs in six counties.

The partnerships will use the grant money, which ranges from $188,000 to $250,000, for a variety of purposes, including equipment, product manufacturing, material processing and recovery or facility expansion.

Recycling Market Development Grant recipients for 2007 (by region) are:

In Central Ohio, the Delaware-Knox-Marion-Morrow Solid Waste District and Sims Brothers Inc. received $250,000 for the purchase of a baler to prepare and process 3,600 tons of fiber-based materials annually, including corrugated cardboard and newspaper. The project will create two new jobs in Marion County.

The Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio and Kurtz Brothers Inc. received $250,000 for a composting system to process 40,000 to 43,000 tons annually of food and cooking waste and to convert the material into soil additives and other marketable compost material. The project will create two new jobs in Franklin County.

In Northeastern Ohio, the Cuyahoga County Solid Waste District and Kurtz Brothers Inc. received $250,000 for equipment to process 37,130 additional tons annually of construction and demolition debris. The new production line will create seven new jobs in Cuyahoga County.

The Jefferson/Belmont Regional Waste Authority and Valley Converting Co. were awarded $188,000 for the purchase of equipment to process 11,000 additional tons annually of fiber materials. The company plans to hire 20 new employees to staff this new manufacturing line in Jefferson County.

In Southeastern Ohio, the Athens-Hocking Solid Waste District and Ohio University received $250,000 for a composting unit to process between 875 and 1,050 tons of food scraps annually and convert it to marketable compost material. It will be the first full-scale composting project at an Ohio college or university and will create one additional job in Athens County.

In Southwestern Ohio, the Darke County Solid Waste District and Spartech Plastics LLC received $250,000 for the purchase of equipment to process and recycle 17,000 tons annually of polyethylene plastic from the company’s manufacturing process. Additional jobs will be created because of this project.

The Division of Recycling and Litter Prevention (DRLP) is responsible for implementing statewide waste reduction, recycling, recycling market development and litter prevention programs. In addition, DRLP assists in implementing Ohio’s Solid Waste Management Plan and encourages Ohioans to recycle.

More information is available at www.dnr.state.ohio.us/recycling.

A report by the New York City Independent Budget Office (IBO) estimates that the cost of collecting and processing recyclables next year will be around $206 per ton, while the estimated cost to dispose of refuse generated in the city will be around $167 per ton.

The difference in costs between the two methods comes despite increasing costs to ship solid waste for disposal outside New York City. However, as the cost of shipping material continues to climb, the spread between the cost of recycling and disposal will narrow.

A key reason for the disparity, according to report, titled "More Recycling Needed to Help Lower City’s Trash Costs," is the relative inefficiency of collecting smaller amounts of recyclables. However, IBO also states that if the city is able to increase the amount of recyclables collected, the price difference would narrow even more. If the city realized a 10 percent increase in recycling tonnage next year, the per-ton cost for collection would decrease by $11 per ton. Further, if the value of the collected paper increased by $12 per ton, the net recycling fee would decline to $38 per ton.

One final issue is the potential savings that could be made by widening the number of recyclables collected. According to the IBO, adding additional plastics and other materials to the collection could increase the recyclable share of that stream significantly.

More information can be found at www.recyclingtoday.com/news/
images/iboreport.pdf.   

The Independent Budget Office is a publicly funded agency that provides non-partisan budgetary, economic and policy analysis for the residents of the city and their elected officials.