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Costs of recycling squeeze county
By BRIDGET HALL GRUMET, Times Staff Writer LECANTO -- Recycling has never been a moneymaker. If anything, it has become more costly as state grants have dried up in recent years. Now county officials are seeking to cut their losses. The County Commission will consider a proposal Sept. 24 to stop collecting glass bottles, steel cans and plastic containers at the county's dropoff recycling centers. The county would also stop recycling white paper at county offices. Those items are among the most expensive products to recycle, Solid Waste Management Director Susan Metcalfe said. Dropping them would save the county about $50,000. The county still would accept newspapers and aluminum cans for recycling and would add bins for recycling cardboard at all 16 dropoff centers, she said. The landfill also will continue recycling yard waste into mulch. "This is a sort of cut-our-losses type of proposal, and we understand in our office it may be a terribly unpopular thing to do," Metcalfe said. "A lot of people that do participate (in recycling) are very adamant about doing this and would like to see more." When the state first pushed recycling more than a decade ago, the county received as much as $350,000 a year in recycling grants, Metcalfe said. "That amount has been steadily declining over the last five years," she said. "Last year, we got not a penny." The county's $454,000 recycling budget covers everything from tires to propane tanks, including about $188,000 for the dropoff recycling program. In the first quarter of this year, the county collected 148.5 tons of glass, 27.7 tons of steel and 30.7 tons of plastic. The items may be plentiful, but the recycling costs are mounting. The county spends more than $250 a ton to recycle plastic for a return of about $20 per ton. Steel cans fetch just $2 per ton. And glass? "The people that currently get rid of our glass for us have told us (in the near future) we will have to pay them to take it," Metcalfe said. As the grants have tapered off, the state has relaxed its recycling requirements. A law passed earlier this year allows counties to drop some items as long as they still recycle at least four products. The Scout troops and civic groups that sponsor the dropoff recycling centers should not see a decrease in their revenues, Metcalfe said. The losses from glass, steel and plastic should be offset by the addition of cardboard recycling, which draws between $20 and $30 a ton. Dedicated recyclers could still avoid sending their glass bottles, steel cans and plastic containers to the dump. Citrus Recycling and Roll-Off Service in Inverness will accept those items, owner Sandy Messina said. "I think it would have a negative effect" if the county stops collecting those items for recycling, Messina said. "If you're not providing people with an outlet for their materials, they're just going to put them out with the trash." -- Bridget Hall Grumet can be reached at 860-7303 or bhall@sptimes.com.
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