March 4, 2012 12:11 am
By RUSTY DENNEN
Though thousands of tons of trash go to area landfills each day, an ever-growing percentage of that waste is being recycled--with varying degrees of efficiency and success, according to a Free Lance-Star review of area recycling programs.
Stafford County and Fredericksburg have the most robust effort, with Spotsylvania and Fauquier counties making strides. More rural areas, such as Caroline and Westmoreland counties, recycle a smaller percentage of waste they handle.
Some make a profit selling recyclable commodities on the open market, while others simply cover their costs or subsidize the operations.
The Rappahannock Regional Solid Waste Management Board, known as the R-Board, recycles the most trash of the 10 localities examined--Fredericksburg and the counties of Stafford, Spotsylvania, Orange, Culpeper, Fauquier, Louisa, Caroline, King George and Westmoreland.
The R-Board handles waste disposal and recycling for Stafford and Fredericksburg.
According to the most recent state recycling report, it has one of the most successful programs in the state.
Of 191,458 tons of waste the R-Board collected in 2010, the latest year for which figures are available, 104,948 tons were recycled. At 57 percent, its effort was second only to Falls Church, which recycled 60 percent.
What is being recycled runs the gamut--from aluminum cans, paper, cardboard, glass and plastic to motor oil, scrap metal and batteries. Most is sold to vendors, who sort and resell it as raw material for new products.
A SINGLE STREAM
The R-Board uses a single-stream collection system in which households and businesses put all recyclables in a single bin to be collected by a compactor truck.
That is more efficient than the multi-stream systems used by most other area jurisdictions, in which the materials are collected and handled separately.
R-Board customers' recycling winds up in a large metal building at the Regional Landfill and Recycling Center at Eskimo Hill in Stafford. It processes enough to fill three or four tractor-trailer loads a day.
The material goes to TFC Recycling in Chester, which sorts out the paper, plastics, aluminum and other materials and sells them to remanufacturers. Tires, scrap metal, used motor oil, and some other items are handled by separate buyers.
Three years into its single-stream system, the R-Board is "very enthusiastic" with its results so far, said spokeswoman Julie May. The recycling operation handles about 7,500 to 8,000 tons a year.
"Single stream is the way the processing industry is moving, and we are glad to have a product the processors and manufacturers want and need," May said.
Buyers typically pay for recyclable materials by the ton, and prices vary widely, according to demand.
Erica Trout, assistant manager of the Virginia Recycling Association in Richmond, said that as recycling efforts across the state grow, more companies that buy the materials are inquiring about locating processing sites in the commonwealth. About 18 companies currently process Virginia recyclables.
"The better we are at collecting and processing, the more attractive we are to the end-users," Trout said.
The R-Board doesn't use local tax dollars to fund its operations. It relies on landfill tipping fees and the sale of its commodities to support its operating budget, which is $8.8 million this year.
"Recycling is incorporated into the R-Board's entire budget, and is just one revenue stream," May said. "Our costs are minimal and have required investment of very little capital, as we only operate a transfer station and do minimal processing."
May said contracts for recyclables have floor and ceiling prices to protect the vendor and the R-Board from drastic price swings.
The board is projecting revenues from recycling of about $250,000 this year. That compares with $322,000 last year, $224,300 in 2010, $268,000 in 2009 and $315,000 in 2008.
The differences are due to fluctuating commodity prices. Last year, she said, scrap metal prices were higher than usual.
The cost of the recycling program is not broken out in the budget. May said cost and return are only part of the picture.
"Recycling is the right thing to do," she said.
May said that if all that is currently recycled stayed in the trash collection and disposal system, it would cost more than the current trash and recycling programs combined.
"While disposal would generate revenue via tipping fees, it would be nearly equalized by the cost of landfilling. By recycling it, we have minimized our expense and benefit from the sale," she said.
A recent estimate by the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Solid Waste found that an efficient curbside recycling program costs about $50 to $150 per ton, compared with about $70 to upward of $200 a ton for trash collection and disposal.
Most important, it extends the life of the landfill, which has a life expectancy of about 30 years.
"Delaying or putting off construction costs completely and preserving land for other uses than burying trash are great reasons to continue recycling," she said. "It improves the quality of life of citizens in our community."
May said customers are generally willing to invest extra time and money to recycle. About three-quarters of the R-Board's customers now recycle, compared to about 45 to 50 percent under the previous system, in which recyclables had to be put in separate bins.
The R-Board has a new composting facility at the regional landfill, and will be selling its Rappa-Grow soil conditioner there this spring. The regional landfill is a state-certified exemplary environmental enterprise, meaning it has a good compliance history, an integrated environmental-management system and a pollution-prevention program in place with demonstrated performance.
MANY GREEN RETURNS
Spotsylvania has 13 convenience centers with separate bins for cardboard, aluminum, mixed paper, glass and several other items. Those materials are hauled to the recycling center at the Chancellor Public Works Building on Harrison Road, where they are bundled for sale to commodity buyers.
Scott Benjamin Loveday, the county's director of solid waste, said the program more than pays for itself. Last year, it generated about $360,000. The cost of processing and bringing the materials to market was about $275,000.
That recycling department also oversees the county's mulching, tire disposal, litter control, and weed and debris programs.
The operating cost of the landfill this year, excluding certain items such as post-closure care and leachate removal, is about $898,000.
Loveday said the county continues to evaluate whether to switch to a single-stream system.
"Under current market conditions, it does not make economic sense as it would cost more to implement and would yield a smaller revenue stream," he said.
But Loveday said recycling is "basically a no-brainer." It not only conserves resources, but creates value for something that would otherwise be thrown away.
"In the past year, we have expanded to have recycling available for all commodities at all the [convenience] centers, and have received excellent public response to the program," Loveday said.
The Spotsylvania school system has its own recycling program--a smaller version of Stafford's single-stream system. But it has been out of commission since a vendor change in early January.
"We're on the way to getting that re-established," said Assistant Superintendent Scott Worner.
Spotsylvania recycles about 40 percent of its solid waste.
CHANGING TIMES
Trish Ethier, Fauquier County's recycling information program coordinator, said the county does all it can to keep items out of the landfill while actively marketing its pool of recyclables.
That's important because Fauquier is preparing to build the last of five landfill cells. At its current recycling rate of about 36 percent, that cell should last through 2020, Ethier said.
Meanwhile, the department formed a committee to come up with ways to divert items such as food scraps, carpeting, mattresses and packing "peanuts" from the landfill.
Fauquier recycled 35.8 percent of its waste in 2010, up from 31.4 percent in 2009, all through voluntary participation with little or no curbside recycling collection. Still, the county will eventually need additional landfill space.
In addition to what it accepts from homes and business, Fauquier has a construction and demolition debris site where 50 to 60 percent of the materials are recycled. Another program collects items such as eyeglasses, pet carriers and wearable used clothes for reuse in the community.
Some items that are not economically viable to recycle off-site are recycled in another way: Tires are shredded and glass crushed to use as a road base at the landfill, as insulation on the landfill's methane gas and leachate piping systems, and to supplement daily cover material placed on the landfill.
"If there's a market for it, we're going to collect it," Ethier said.
The county has collected as much as $1.2 million in a year for its recyclables. That was in 2008, before the recession. Since then, it's brought in from $500,000 to $750,000 annually.
As in Stafford and Fredericksburg, no taxpayer money is used to support the program.
"All the money we make on tipping fees and sales of [commodities] stays in this account," she said. The money is used to administer and manage the program, for engineering and staff salaries.
The bottom line, she said, is diverting as much material as possible from the landfill.
"Times are changing. Recycling is creating jobs, and it's more than being a tree-hugger. It's become a huge industry in the U.S."
________________________________________
CAROLINE: Has no landfill; trash is collected at convenience sites and trucked to BFI landfill in Henrico County. The county has recycling bins at its seven convenience sites. CULPEPER: Has four recycling centers, each has containers for glass, aluminum, steel and tin cans, and for newspapers and magazines. FAUQUIER: Accepts most recyclable items at several collection sites and at a bulk recycling center. FREDERICKSBURG AND STAFFORD: The area's most comprehensive recycling program. The Rappahannock Regional Solid Waste Management Board handles recycling for both localities. The Eskimo Hill regional landfill in Stafford, and the Belman Road Recycling Center in Fredericksburg, accept recyclables--such as glass, plastic and aluminum cans--that don't have to be separated. The materials go to a large building at the landfill, where they are loaded into tractor-trailer trucks, and sent to a buyer and sorting facility in Chester. KING GEORGE: Operates a single-stream system, like the R-Board, only smaller. Accepts recyclables in bins stationed at the landfill and one convenience site. LOUISA: Accepts items for recycling at nine convenience centers. Cardboard is stored in separate bins, all other materials--newspaper, cans, plastic and glass--are co-mingled in another container. ORANGE: Recycling center on U.S. 15 takes glass, plastic, aluminum and metal cans, newspaper and cardboard. SPOTSYLVANIA: Items such as aluminum, glass, mixed paper, cardboard and plastics are collected at convenience sites and go to a processing site on Harrison Road. WESTMORELAND: Three collection sites accept glass, newspaper, aluminum and metal cans and plastic bottles. MISCELLANEOUS
Rules for collection and disposal of other materials that can be recycled--electronics, yard waste, tires, appliances, motor oil and batteries, for example--vary by locality.
Some area schools also have recycling programs.
According to the most recent U.S. Recycling Economic Information Study, about 56,000 recycling establishments employ more than 1.1 million people, generating an annual payroll of more than $37 billion, and more than $236 billion in annual revenues.
The Environmental Protection Agency says that in 2010, the latest year for which figures are available, of about 250 million tons of waste generated, 85 million tons were recycled and composted. That works out to about 1.5 pounds of the 4.4-pound average generated per person each day.
The most recycled items, by volume: newspapers, corrugated cardboard boxes, steel cans, yard trimmings, aluminum cans, scrap tires, magazines, plastic bottles and glass containers.
According to the Virginia Recycling Association, about 18 companies buy and process recycled materials in Virginia.
TFC Recycling, based in Hampton Roads, is the largest in Virginia, and handles materials from the R-Board recycling program in Stafford and several other area localities.
Recycling allowed in curbside residential containers include: cardboard boxes, mixed paper, No. 1 and 2 plastic bottles, glass bottles, along with steel, tin and aluminum cans.
The company provides collection, recycling and disposal services for commercial, municipal and residential customers in Virginia and North Carolina.
For single-stream recycling, TFC pays municipalities a certain amount per ton--the price depends on market conditions. It then resells the materials to remanufacturers.
Read more, tfcrecycling.com