Chestertown Mayor Margo Bailey fought for curbside recycling during the county commissioners’ meeting Tuesday. She said it was frustrating to feel like the county was moving backwards with its recycling program.
“This is really a blow to us [towns]. We’ve worked really hard to get people to recycle to cut back on our tipping fees at the landfill,” she said.
During the town’s Earth Day celebrations she said she had a number of elderly residents come up to her saying they weren’t going to be able to recycle anymore because they couldn’t get their recyclables to a drop off center. Commissioner Roy Crow said he understood the mayor’s frustration, but “the county is going to get out of curbside recycling because of the cost.”
According to Marty Holden, the county’s waste management division chief, it cost the county approximately $2,000 per household for one year of curbside recycling pickup. The revenue generated from selling recyclables was about $18,000 to $20,000 a year, the majority of which was generated from textile recycling, which the county doesn’t do anymore. The total cost of the county’s program, including salaries, gas and truck maintenance, was more than $400,000.
Commissioner Ron Fithian stressed that the county was not cutting out recycling “we’re just not coming to your door step anymore and picking it up. If you want to recycle you can take it to an igloo … when you’re looking at a $2 to $4 million (budget) hole it’s not easy to make these decisions.”
Chestertown Councilman Marty Stetson asked if residents could take their recyclables to one of the schools or the college since the county was still picking up their recycling. Holden explained that what is being picked up from the schools and college is bulk recycling material and will be loaded onto a small flat bed truck.
“We’re not set up to pick up residential recycling even if people drop it off at the schools.” He also said that the county is required by law to have a recycling plan in place for all schools, including colleges, in its district. Stetson, expressing the views of one of his constituents, said some folks were willing to pay more taxes to keep the curbside recycling program going.
“Pat Merritt (chief financial officer for the county) was in here last week and sent out 500 notices to people who haven’t paid their taxes in two years,” Fithian said. “It’s hard to say, ‘Raise the taxes,’ when there are 500 families out there who haven’t paid their taxes in two years because they can’t. How are you going to say ‘raise the taxes’ to them?”
Stetson said he was not for raising taxes and he understood the commissioners’ position, he was simply passing along the message. The commissioners suggested Bailey set up recycling igloos in town or look into contracting with a private company to provide Chestertown residents with curbside service.
“I will let you know what we’ll do … we don’t want to go backwards. I can’t get off this green horse now, it’s a commitment,” she said. “Igloos are not an option for us. We want a curbside solution.”
About half of all participants in the county’s curbside recycling program reside in towns.
Clark says
Go Margo!
James says
Based on the figures in the post, the per household cost appears to be too high by a factor of ten. Using the figure in the post of $400,000 divided by a conservative participation estimate of 2,000 households = $200 per household annually (not $2,000). This equates to $16.67 per month. And for towns with weekly pick up is $4.17 per pickup. Since the participation is likely higher, then the annual, monthly and per pickup costs would be less and well under $4/pickup. In addition, due to the budget concerns and market improvements the County and Region have recently renegotiated with the main local paper market to increase revenue to an index based price (set each month), currently of $80 / ton. This increase in recycling revenues for the 500 tons of paper the county collects annually reduces a portion of the net cost of recycling collection by that amount. By comparison, Allied’s 6 pickups per month (2 single stream recycling and 4 trash) at $89/quarter equals $4.94 / pickup. It should be noted that the single stream recycling process downgrades each commodity to the point that glass and shredded paper is typically used as “landfill cover” (to cover the trash each day) and paper would no longer go to a local company that provides 30 local jobs. However glass collected by the county, the region’s igloos and Infinity is sent to a PA processor who works with bottle manufacturers and paper goes to the local market.
Keep in mind that waste also has an expense of collection and transportation plus then a landfill disposal fee in Easton of $55 / ton which is to increase to $58 / ton in July. The disposal fee in DE is to increase to $80 / ton. Also it is interesting to note that there are perpetual and unknown costs and subsidies of the waste system. For instance, per the April 13, 2010 Kent County commissioner minutes “the Commissioners approved and Commissioner Crow signed revised USDA grant application in the amount of $301,000 for the groundwater remediation system for the Nicholson Landfill property”. The new regional landfill in Ridgely is more than a $10 million project.
Kent County receives an annual grant from the region for the purchase of the recycling trucks and recycling bins and for one helper from Kent Center, so these costs are not incurred by the county’s general fund.
The environmental benefits calculator ( https://www.nerc.org/documents/environmental_benefits_calculator.html) and other tools can provide estimates of the communal greenhouse gas reductions, energy savings and natural resource conservation that recycling provides. And, https://www.nrc-recycle.org/top10reasonstorecycle.aspx provides top 10 reasons to recycle.
John says
Thanks for the excellent post James. I hope the County Commissioners are reading this. Better yet, I hope the residents of Kent County read from this post when they CALL the County Commissioners at (410) 778-4600. Make your voice heard!
Gren Whitman says
If our clever county commissioners really, really ponder, I’m positive they can find a way to continue the curbside recycling program, and stop looking so short-sighted and, yes, anti-green!
And, Mayor Margo-go-go really, really gets it, doncha think?
Keith Thompson says
Not that I agree with the decision of the county, but to add to to James’ figures…I was told that the curbside recycling rate in the county is about 30% meaning that the county was paying for a program that was NOT being used by 70% of the residents. I’m not sure that the increase in garbage disposal costs would be offset by the recycling savings of the program due to the participation rate (I would suspect that a sizeable portion of the folks participating in the curbside program will continue to recycle). The participation rate in the towns is much higher meaning that the towns are much more likely to have a successful recycling program. I’m sure there are other things the county commissioners could try like mandatory recycling (which likely wouldn’t play well in the more conservative sections of the county) but I’m not sure the county had a lot of options here. I can understand why recycling advocates are up in arms, but I wonder if they’re going after the right target.
Bobby says
I use to live 10 miles outside of Chestertown and recycled for years but it makes sense to me to cut the program. Why send a 25 ton recycling truck around the county making a stop every couple of miles or so? Its probably doing more harm than good to the environment. Maybe Chestertown can start their own curbside recycling program that would pick up within the town limits. They could also establish recycling centers that are convenient such as near a grocery store. That way people who live outside the town could recycle while running errands.
The mandatory recycling will never happen and would never work. The only way to enforce it would be by digging through someones trash? I guess that would create jobs…
Keith Thompson says
After a further reading of James’ post, I think I’ve found a fallacy in his statistical analysis. James states: “Based on the figures in the post, the per household cost appears to be too high by a factor of ten. Using the figure in the post of $400,000 divided by a conservative participation estimate of 2,000 households = $200 per household annually (not $2,000). This equates to $16.67 per month.” If I correctly understand James’ point, he seems to be saying that the costs of implementing the recycling program are reduced due to the lack of participation. I think his statistics are meaningless because the cost per person in the county is based on the entire population of the county regardless of whether that person participates or not. If a resident chooses not to participate in the program, it doesn’t reduce his or her cost because the collection vehicles are still being used and personnel being employed. Unless I misunderstand his point, James seems to indicate that the cost of running the program drops if fewer people are using it, but the reality is that the opposite is true. There are not enough people participating in the program for the economic benefits of recycling to offset the cost of administering the program. From my point of view, the problem isn’t that the commissioners are being short-sighted, but that the county residents are. Perhaps curbside recycling can be brought back in the future, but first the residents have to be educated about the benefits before the program can be made cost-effective.
Greg says
Excellent post James.
Anna says
While I think it’s great that Mayor Bailey is fighting for the continuation of curbside recycling, I am puzzled by her statement that “Igloos are not an option for us.” Why is this?
I’ve also been wondering if the possibility of a less-frequent curbside pick-up was considered. Bi-weekly or even monthly would be better than a total cut.
Bill says
OMG who cares about recycling. Im sure most elderly people have grandchildren and such that can take the items to the recycling bins. and yea sending the big truck to every block in all the incorporated towns has to cost a lot of money and do more harm to the environment. Ctown mayor is up in arms with the skateboarders that harrass chestertown and god forbid a few of her friends can’t put their recycle goods on the curb. Its the drug dealers and people who dont have jobs and contribute ctowns demise. It absolutley blows my mind that in the afternoon you can drive down the street and just count the jobless welfare collectors walking around the town and we are complaining about recycling? Give me a break. Dont mind the crime and people not feeling safe about walking down the street after hours, but hey well get curbside recycling b/c igloos are not an option. i wouldnt live in chestertown if they paid me to live there.
Steve Meehan says
Trash disposal continues to be a challenge for individuals and leaders. Once we use it, we lose the interested in dealing with it.
1. The issue continues to be finding a method of removing recyclables from the landfill stream without causing riots in the street. In this era of hostility for taking personal responsibility (note the reaction by many Americans to the concept of having a plan to be responsible in advance for paying for health care costs) local officials can mandate source separation. It requires planning on the part of governments that provide “no additional fee” trash pick up. Maybe the towns cut back regular pick up and add recycling pick up. It all will goes into the same truck just on different days if the recyclables are properly separated from landfillable trash. It can be enforced at the transfer stations, which have igloos on site. In Cecil County, you dump for free if you source separate and pay a dumping fee if you do not.
2. Republic Waste, a private trash hauler, has not mandated it, but is now offering its customers semi-monthly source-separated recylcing pick up. Clearly there is a cost advantage to removing paper, plastic, glass and recyclable metals from the trash stream. Republic Waste annual subscription’s is substantially less than the cost of Kent’s recycling-only pick up. Governments should sit down with their haulers and work out a plan.
3. I remember the RESCO debate. I supported the RESCO concept: separate recyclables, incinerate the balance, subantially reduce the material to be landfilled, and bury the ash. Another case of science losing to aesthetics. The aesthetes won the battle, the region lost the war. The result: mountains of trash popping up like ugly pimples across the Eastern Shore that ooze and leak and will present water quality and sight quality challenges in the future.
The recylcling piece is one part of the trash puzzle.
Jeff says
Thank you Mayor Bailey for fighting for this. I hope a way is found to keep pick-up going at least in Chestertown. I think having the igloo’s can be a part of the solution, but lets be honest… a lot less people are going participate if that’s the only option (which I would assume is the reason for the mayors comment on it.) Obviously finding ways to balance the budget right now is not easy, but you can not convince me that having recyclables going to the landfill is going to save money long-term. Tipping/hauling fee’s will increase and those costs will be passed on in one way or another.
ford says
I’m not trying to blow my horn, but in the spirit of information, infinity Recycling, who has been working for 20 years, can pick up recycling weekly from anyone in Kent for $10/ month. We can give good discounts to towns or communities. We’re a non profit and recycling is our main mission.