Not easy being green A flagging economy takes its toll on the recycling industry.
Posted on Sunday, January 4, 2009
Sunday photograph by David Frank Dempsey Jo Barnes made a two-point shot into the bin for recyclable aluminum at the Rogers Community Recycling Center on Wednesday.
BENTON COUNTY - While recycling in Benton County may be on the rise, the market and need for recycled goods has been trashed along with the economy.
The global market prices for aluminum, paper, plastic and steel have fallen as much as 80 percent this year, according to a recent report by USA Today. As a result, recycling companies are laying off workers, have cut
expenses and have stopped accepting certain materials.
Locally, the Benton County Solid Waste District seems to be facing the brunt of the costs. The district projected a $62,000 loss of income because of a weakened economy, and an inability to sell recycled goods. As a result, the district is drastically reducing the recycling program's services and personnel. The district plans to make a number of cutbacks, including the following:
· Discontinue the business recycling pickup program. "For now, we will only serve the schools and nonprofit accounts that we have already established," said Wendy Cravens, director of the Benton County Solid Waste District. All affected businesses will be notified, and service will be discontinued by Jan. 30.
· Discontinue the green-waste collection program, which has included collection of leaves, grass and small limbs for composting.
· Limit the types of household hazardous waste accepted to only typical household products. The volume of material one household can deliver has also
been limited.
· Change the hours of the district's recycling facility to discontinue staffed service on Saturday. The facility, at 5702 Brookside Road in Centerton, will now be open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, and from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. Thursday.
The district will also eliminate three positions with the county, including the office coordinator position, the recycling foreman position and the tire foreman position. These positions will be replaced by part-time and low-pay laborer jobs, and the director and assistant director will take on additional duties.
Meanwhile, the city of Bentonville's recycling program has seen tremendous growth in the year since it was implemented. By the middle of 2008, the recycling program had exceeded 2,500 tons in recycling collections - more than the entire tonnage of collections in the 12 years since Bentonville first offered recycling.
But the city of Bentonville doesn't have to worry about revenues when it comes to recycling; all that is handled through a contract with Allied Waste.
Mayor Bob McCaslin said he's followed the trends with the falling recyclables market, and that by contracting to a third-party instead of handling the recyclables in-house, the city has possibly dodged a financial bullet.
But it was dodged way before McCaslin took office in 2007, he said. "Bentonville, as a city, has never made the commitment to use its own manpower ... to handle solidwaste disposal, nor had we with recycling," McCaslin said. "In hindsight, (contracting) looks like a much better option than having to deal with it yourself."
Having the recycling services contracted to a third party means any losses or gains in income fall on that party, not on the taxpayers. "I would say it certainly gives us time to deal with some other issues, and not having to deal (with losses)," McCaslin said.
According to the terms of the contract between the city and Allied, all materials picked up through the city's recycling program must be recycled and may not be sent to or stored in a landfill. "Everything we asked Allied to do, they've done for us," McCaslin said.
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