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The Trouble With Recycling
by: Robyn Harrison
For The Mountain Mail
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When recycling efforts in Socorro first began, the city was motivated to make recycling work: the landfill was nearly at capacity.
“We were very aggressive, looking for ways to cut costs because we were in danger of losing the landfill and would have to haul everything somewhere else,” City Clerk Pat Salome said.
Socorro County Recycling Awareness Project (SCRAP) started as a volunteer effort in the late 1980s. Organized by Karin Williams, Dona Nowicki and Judy Holdaway, the group met once a month to separate items collected in bins the county set out at the site of the current Tresco facility on Park Street. Socorro County Solid Waste Director Mike Jojola then hauled them to Albuquerque to be recycled.
When the city took over, Holdaway became the city’s first recycling administrator. She wrote grants proposals, which helped the city buy recycling bins and the recycling collection truck. Barbara Fazio took over in 1991 and served in the position until 1998.
Fazio said that grant money was available at that time from Exxon following the Exxon Valdez accident, administered by the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department. The city’s recycling program expanded to curbside recycling, with each residence receiving a recycling bin for weekly pick up. Four city employees operated the program, with Fazio working part time to securing grants and educating the public through classroom games and activities, in-service presentations and newspaper articles.
When Fazio left in 1998, the position was not filled. Rather it was rolled into the responsibilities of other personnel.
“We were the first to do curbside recycling in the state, and first to use natural gas in city vehicles,” says Mayor Ravi Bhasker of Socorro’s recycling history. “When we started recycling, cardboard was $120 per ton. They took all colors of glass, solid waste rates were low. We did it [curbside recycling] about five years, got the glass crusher, cardboard baler. McKinley Paper would come get the stuff, but then in the late 90s it started losing money, large amounts of money. We started cutting back on recycling to keep from raising solid waste rates.”
“We’ve never said ‘it’s over,’ but we’ve tried to narrow it down to make it match the markets,” Salome said.
Currently, the city recycles only used motor oil and corrugated cardboard.
Mike Jojola (no relation to Mike Jojola of the County Solid Waste Department), City Superintendent of Gas, Solid Waste and Recycling for the City of Socorro, says he has three employees working with recycling: two full-time and one part-time.
They are responsible for collecting and baling cardboard from small businesses in town (Smith’s, Wal-Mart and SuperMart all recycle through their parent corporations). A company from Albuquerque picks up about 30 bales every 45 days, paying the city $600.
The used motor oil is collected at the city recycling site at no cost to residents. The oil is picked up every 60 days, a service for which the city pays $800 per pickup.
Bhasker said that the employees also spend time cleaning up the area around the recycle bin. “People are always throwing their garbage there.”
Salome says he speaks only for himself, not for the city.
“My grandpa turned aluminum cans into seven college degrees so I know it can be done, but it’s got to be done right,” he said.
He is most concerned with the net environmental and financial gain realized in local recycling. When curbside recycling became too expensive, the city installed central collection points. If someone dumped their household garbage in the newspaper bin, the whole bin would be contaminated and have to be dumped in the landfill.
“When we recycle we’re still consuming things: electricity, fossil fuel. We’re using more than we’re saving,” Salome said, referring to the gasoline burned to ship the recyclables and the resulting air pollution. “We’ve used our labor and fuel collecting stuff – spending $90,000 to $100,000 on the recycling effort. The question is, what is the net effect of what we’re doing? Are we just doing it because it makes us feel good?”
He goes on to suggest that, “If people are truly interested in recycling, we could get together and come up with other things we could do.”
He thinks it will require some creative thinking.
“What if we just bought trees and planted trees instead of recycling cardboard?” Salome said. “Do our part in some more creative way instead of loading cardboard on a truck. We could buy a lot of trees for $90,000. We need to talk about building a better mousetrap.”
Next week: Local residents are interested in building a better mousetrap -- and kickstarting a recycling program in Socorro. Also, a brief look at how other communities in New Mexico are managing recycling. |
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