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To Recycle Or Not To Recycle
by: Robyn Harrison
For The Mountain Mail
Contact:
When recycling efforts in Socorro first began, the city was motivated to make recycling work: the landfill was nearly at capacity.
Since those days in the 1990s, the economics of recycling have changed and the city has nearly eliminated the municipal recycling program.
Now, a few local residents are taking matters into their own hands.
Interested parties
One person interested in building a better mouse trap is Mike Finn, owner/operator of Hope Farms Nursery. Finn wrote a letter to the editors of both local papers, suggesting interested citizens get in touch with him and talk about recycling alternatives.
“I got 15 responses representing about 20 people with lots of good comments and feedback,” Finn said. He believes one place to start is in education. People need to be informed about what can be recycled, where it can be taken, how it should be prepared. He suggests forming community groups to be the responsible parties: what can we do in our neighborhood, in our church, in our school system?
He recognizes it will require volunteer time and effort and that becoming informed about options is the first step.
Start-Up Business
Chris Michel of Morning Woodcutters is another person interested in seeing recycling available in Socorro. Michel earned a bachelor’s in environmental engineering from New Mexico Tech when Socorro still offered curbside recycling. When he returned to the area this fall, he was disappointed to learn there was no recycling available. He continued to sort his recyclables and take them to drop off centers in Albuquerque. When a friend asked him to take hers as well, he decided to make it into a small business.
He placed a small advertisement, but the bulk of his business has come from his website morningwoodcutters.com For $20 a month, he will pick up items to be recycled from residents’ homes. For those who balk at the price, he will take one-time dropoffs for $5, limited to what will fit in a 32-gallon barrel, on a first-come first-served until-the-truck-is-full basis.
Michel hauls the items to a recycle center in Albuquerque.
“After talking to Albuquerque Solid Waste, a pick-up truck full of recyclables once a month is not a big deal. I realize that if this service takes off I may have significantly more recyclables than a pick-up truck full so I am trying to find some commercial recycle companies to work with. I can assure you that I will not dump the recyclables into the landfill,” Michel said in an email.
To date he has four subscribers and is optimistic that he will reach his break-even point by November. He acknowledges that he sees this more as a service than a money-making venture.
Not Impossible
What are other communities doing?
Albuquerque is Socorro’s nearest neighbor with a recycling program. The city offers central drop-off sites, as well as curbside recycling. Each residence is charged a monthly fee of $10.75, with $8.18 going to garbage collection, $1.89 to recycling and the remainder to environmental fees. The population discrepancy between Albuquerque and Socorro makes this a poor comparison.
Aztec, a community of less than 7,000, offers central recycling drop-off points. The city of Aztec accept glass, metals, paper and cardboard and plastics free of charge.
Kathy Lamb, assistant finance director said, “We feel it’s important that we have that center operational. It’s more convenient. We feel strongly about recycling – reduce, reuse – the whole mantra.”
Aztec’s annual recycling budget is $42,000, funding one part-time employee and equipment.
The caveat is that Aztec has a Joint Power Agreement with Bloomfield and Farmington for a regional recycling center that ultimately deals with processing and shipping the items. The regional center serves a population of about 46,000 people.
According to the New Mexico Recycling Coalition, Lincoln County has the highest recycling rate of any community in New Mexico
Debra Ingle, operational supervisor of the Lincoln County Solid Waste Authority, admits, “Recycling is something you have to work at. You set it up just like any cost center business. You charge for stuff coming in and get paid for it going out.”
The recycling budget for Lincoln County for FY07/08 is $72,000 to cover the cost of two full-time employees, one temporary summer employee and operational overhead. The budget started in July, and to date, the revenue from recycling is $38,000 with an expected total for the year of $167,000.
“We’ll make a profit this year,” Ingle said.
Lincoln County is motivated to recycle because the a roundtrip to the landfill is 150 miles. Residents are not charged for drop off recycling and businesses are encouraged to recycle at a cost of $40/month rather than pay the full $60/month for garbage pick up. Because the recycling program makes money, residential garbage collection fees can be kept low.
Low, however, is relative. Currently waste is collected door-to-door in county municipalities (Carrizozo, Capitan and Ruidoso Downs) at a cost of $17 per month and $15.45 for county residents who must haul their trash to centrally located dumpsters. The Village of Ruidoso does its own garbage collection for $22 per month.
The revenue in Ingle’s budget comes from the sale of her recyclables. Durango-McKinley Paper Co. in Albuquerque picks up paper, plastic and newspaper, and pays per ton.
Nunn Petroleum Waste Management from Anthony takes used motor oil. Residents are charged 25 cents per gallon for disposal.
The fee for large appliances is $5 (refrigerators are $6). Metal can be dropped off for $6/yard. A company from Anthony, New Mexico, picks it up once a week–and pays Ingle for the privilege.
Tires are shredded for $2 per tire. With the tires and a $300,000 recycling grant, Lincoln County is building new fences around its transfer stations.
The county also has outlets for paint (often used by different entities to cover up graffiti or in volunteer community cleanup efforts), car batteries, carpets, cell phones, phone books and yard trimmings.
“Charge for it coming in, get paid for it going out,” Ingle said. “And because it’s recycling instead of waste disposal, you can use grant money.”
Next week: the third and final part of the series. The New Mexico Recycling Coalition is working to increase efforts statewide. |
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