Charleston’s free recycling bag program was supposed to end this fiscal year, but an extension may be on the horizon.
The city had provided free trash bags and recycling bags since the 1970s, but the program was cut earlier this year to bring $400,000 of cost savings. The Environmental and Recycling Committee was tasked to find a solution to the problem.
However, committee members said they need more time.
“The immediate issue we need to deal with is we are approaching the end of the fiscal year and we’re still on the bag program,” said council member Samuel Minardi, a Democrat representing Ward 15. “We’re not going to have a permanent solution for recycling in place in the next 45 days.”
Minardi said the committee will probably need to ask to extend the contract until the end of the year to buy time until a permanent solution is found.
A timeline for an extension couldn’t be set or voted on at Monday night’s meeting because not enough committee members were present to have a quorum, or the minimum number of people needed to vote.
Committee Chairman John Kennedy Bailey said they will put together a suggestion to bring to council when there are enough committee members present.
During the committee meeting, Bailey and members discussed possible options for the recycling program, including:
- Doing nothing and have the public provide their own bags;
- Selling the same bags in stores at cost or at some profit;
- Continuing to provide free bags with grant or another type of funding;
- Providing some sort of cart or bin for people to drop off their recyclables;
- Providing drop-off places where the public sorts recyclables into bins. The city would then take the materials to the Kanawha Solid Waste Authority.
It’s possible the solution will be a combination of those ideas, Bailey said. He wants to further look into providing bags in stores and an option for residents to purchase a cart.
In the past, the committee has looked at switching solely to carts, but it was too expensive, Refuse Deputy Director John Shannon said.
Bailey said he thinks there are some individuals who would be willing to buy carts, but bags should still be sold in stores at a low price.
The current bag distributor, WasteZero, would be able to provide the bags in stores, Bailey said. Bags would cost 27 cents each, or about $6 to $7 a roll, according to Bailey.
At-large council member Naomi Bays said the bags should be priced so the grocery stores selling them would be able to make a small profit.
“I can’t just sell something out of the kindness of my heart,” Bays said. “I’m still reporting it to my gross sales and that’s what I’m paying B&O taxes off of. ... In the end it would still be cheaper than a Glad Bag.”
The issues with Charleston’s recycling program extend beyond bags. A study the city conducted in 2015 found the recycling program as a whole to be cost inefficient. As of now, the recyclables are taken to the Raleigh County Solid Waste Authority’s recycling facility in Beckley.
The 124-mile round trip to the facility and back to Charleston costs $200 — money for fuel, tolls and overall wear-and-tear on the vehicles. Over the course of a year, Charleston accumulates $52,000 in operating costs, according to the study.
The committee will also consider options to make the recycling process more affordable for the city. Some of these options include:
- Doing nothing and continuing to send recyclables to Beckley and absorb the trucks;
- Creating a “transfer station” maybe with other municipalities where Charleston’s packer trucks transfer recyclables to larger trucks, which then go on to Beckley;
- Contributing resources to the Kanawha County Solid Waste Authority to help them construct a facility similar to the one in Beckley;
- Constructing its own facility and offsetting the costs by accepting recycling from other municipalities;
Bailey added they’ll have to research what each of the aforementioned ideas would cost.
“We don’t want to build a more expensive solution to our problem,” Bailey said. “We don’t want to put 40 years worth of going to Beckley into a transfer station.”
That’s why the county and city are also looking at grant funding. Kanawha County Deputy Director for Planning and Community Development Paula Kaufman said she plans to apply for an Abandoned Mine Lands grant to purchase property on Campbell’s Creek Drive to create a recycling facility.
She said it’s too early in the process to know exactly what the county and city partnership will look like, or to develop a timeline for the project. She said if the grant does not work out, she’ll also consider other avenues for funding.
“We are not going to put all our eggs in one basket to buy this land,” Kaufman said.
Whatever method the city decides to use, the recycling program must be reliable for residents, Minardi said.
“I’ve been on this committee for eight years and we’ve changed at least twice from sorting to single stream. Before we change again, we need something residents can count on,” Minardi said. “We’re never going to grow the program if it continues to change.”
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