County recycling center heading for tighter restrictions

“This is going to take a major education effort”

by Kristy Acuff

Thanks to decreasing prices and at-capacity facilities across the country, it is getting harder for Gunnison County to find a market for its recycled cardboard.

In addition, facilities that used to accept cardboard loads that were “contaminated” with unwanted box and paperboard, now reject any load contaminated with more than 1 percent non-corrugated cardboard.

As a result, county officials are preparing to tighten up what they will accept at the recycling drop-off center outside of Gunnison and looking to increase fees at the landfill, fees that ultimately cover the costs of the recycling center.

“Many of the facilities we used to ship and sell our cardboard to are dropping their prices and some are filling up and no longer accepting,” county Public Works director Marlene Crosby reported to the Board of County Commissioners at its August 13 meeting.

“We currently have five loads with 38 bales each sitting at our facility waiting for shipment,” said Crosby. “We found a buyer in Los Angeles but they pay only $65 per ton and the cost to freight it out there is $57 per ton, so that is only an $8 margin. We are efficient, but not at that level. In addition, this buyer will accept only 1 percent contamination.”

Crosby and her staff spent time at the recycling center recently to observe citizens pitching cardboard into the bins. She estimates that 50 percent of what citizens were throwing in was non-corrugated and would be rejected by the new market.

“These cracker boxes and cereal boxes are not acceptable because they are box board, which is actually a glued cardboard,” Crosby showed the commissioners. “Nor are these soda and beer cases acceptable because they are coated with something in case of leaks. And we can no longer accept brown paper or brown mailing tubes. We are going to have to undertake a major education campaign to get the public on track with this.”

As part of the education effort, the Public Works Department hired an outreach staffer to work at the recycling center drop-off to help divert non-corrugated cardboard and non-acceptable plastics out of the bins. The new hire will inform citizens when they have non-acceptable material and politely ask them to take it home.

“In the past, when we have had staff out there, if they saw unacceptable material, they would say, ‘Okay, next time, just don’t bring this,’ but that is not going to work anymore. Staff will have to tell them to take it home. No more free passes,” said Crosby.

“Everything is tightening up in China with the market for #3 through #7 plastics,” said Crosby. “We have never accepted anything but #1 and #2 at the center and that will continue but we have to become more vigilant about it. As you know, recycling has never paid for itself because the money we receive for the product is not enough to cover the costs of the process. Ultimately, we may have to charge more at the landfill to help cover these costs.”

Crosby reported that the price for cardboard had been as high as $205 per ton in 2017, but started dropping in 2018 and now sits around $65 per ton. On top of the lower price, the volume  of cardboard the county collects will decrease under the tighter restrictions.

“We are getting less money for our product and are going to be collecting less product,” explained Crosby. “So our revenue is taking a double hit. Our plan is to start going after some businesses in town that currently have lots of good cardboard from big appliances or furniture. At this time, many of them pay to have it picked up and taken away, but we want to get them on board to bring it to our recycling center.”

In addition, Crosby asked the BOCC to approve a rate increase for the landfill charges. “The only way I know to mitigate the revenue loss is to charge more at the landfill,” Crosby told the BOCC.

On the upside, Crosby reported a boon in the county’s mattress recycling program. (No, it is not what you are thinking. It is not re-using the mattress; it is re-cycling the mattress.)

“Guess how many mattresses we recycled last year?” Crosby asked the commissioners.

“Um, 500?” answered commissioner Jonathan Houck.

“Try 2,643,” Crosby responded. “Everyone always makes fun of my excitement about this program but it really makes a difference in saving space in our landfill. Every standard queen-sized mattress we keep out of the landfill saves us one cubic yard of space. But it looks like we are going to increase the fees for mattress drop-off as well.”

Currently, the county charges $15 to drop off a mattress at the landfill. The county then collects the mattresses and drives them to a facility in Tennessee, where Spring Back Mattress employs formerly incarcerated men to disassemble the mattresses and separate the recyclable parts, including the wood, the cotton and the steel springs.

“It is an amazing process,” Crosby told the commissioners. “They know when our drivers are going to arrive and they are ready for us. They have our truck off-loaded in 20 minutes. Our drivers report that the whole operation is ‘top flight.’”

However, Crosby went on, the $15 is not enough to cover the costs to the county, which pays Spring Back $15 per mattress in addition to spending $10 per mattress for transportation. As a result, Crosby asked the county to allow an increase in the fee for mattress drop-off at the landfill.

“Certainly,” said Houck. “As long as people know and understand what the fee increase is for, I see no reason not to approve. This is increasing the length of the life of our county landfill as well as repurposing valuable materials like steel and wood.”

“Our landfill is already filling faster than anticipated thanks to the increase in construction, among other things,” added commissioner Roland Mason.

“Absolutely,” said Crosby. “That is why we recycle—to save space in the landfill. And to conserve raw materials, of course.”