DAPHNE – Changes in the Daphne recycling program to reduce a deficit of more than $500,000 a year could include higher fees, reduced collections days and fewer types of materials picked up at the curb, city officials said.
The Daphne City Council is working on changes to the recycling program to deal with increasing costs and reduced markets for recyclable materials. Even before the city’s recycling center was destroyed in a fire in 2019, Daphne has been trying to find ways to deal with costs, Council President Robin LeJeune said at a public hearing on the issue on Jan. 21.
He said cities across the country have not been able to find processors to take recyclables since China stopped buying the materials in the last few years. With the cost of disposing of recyclables rising, changes will have to be made in Daphne.
“There are three items we are looking at to salvage our recycling program, a possible fee increase, limited services, possibly going to every other week or so, and then limiting what items we’re going to recycle,” LeJeune said.
Mayor Dane Haygood said city officials want to know what the public thinks about such solutions.
“This has been an ongoing discussion and an education for each one of us over the past year,” Haygood said. “It really has boiled down to a number of strategies and these can be implemented independently or any combination of those in order to try to address the rapidly changing and deteriorating recycling market for us.”
Jeremy Sasser, Daphne public works director, said that since the fire, the city has continued to collect recyclables at the curb. Those items however, have been dumped at Baldwin County’s Magnolia Landfill.
He said the last load taken to the Escambia County Utility Authority for recycling cost Daphne $71 a ton between disposal fees and transportation costs. The cost to dispose of the material at the landfill is $29 a ton. Sasser said Daphne has been recycling 2,000 tons a year.
Daphne takes in about $1.6 million in revenue from recycling fees paid by the 8,700 households served by the program. The projected cost is about $2.175 million, leaving an annual deficit of about $573,680. If the capital improvement costs of replacing trucks as they wear out is included, the deficit is more than $800,000, he said.
Some ways to cut costs include reducing recycling collection from once a week to every other week. That could reduce the need for workers and cut the wear on equipment. Sasser said any workers displaced by any cost-cutting measures would not lose their jobs but would be transferred to fill other vacancies in the city.
Automated trucks, similar to the vehicles now used to collect garbage in Daphne, could also cut staffing costs.
Reducing the types of materials accepted could also cut costs. Recycling cardboard, aluminum and some, but not all, plastics costs less because recyclers have a market for those items. Other items are more expensive, such as the type of plastic in margarine tubs.
The city already stopped recycling glass, although many residents are still placing glass in the curbside containers, Sasser said.
Another option is increasing recycling fees. Daphne charges $15.60 a month for recyclable collections. A proposal by a private company to collect garbage and recyclable material in Daphne in 2019 put that cost at more than $23, Sasser said.
Most residents who spoke at the public hearing supported continuing the recycling program.
“It is important to recycle and I appreciate that you all are taking it so seriously, Carolyn Walthall said. “As a citizen, I’m willing to pay more. I think that’s important to have as a line item in the budget because I think that where our line items are is where our interests are.”
Freddie Johnson said areas around the country are continuing recycling even at higher costs.
“If you visit any other place in this country, recycling is a big thing and they’re serious about it,” he said. “You can’t even get a grocery, plastic bag. You have to either bring your own bag or put it in a box, why? Because it’s not recyclable. We’re not taking it that serious. It is a serious business. It’s not just because we want to make money. It’s never been about money. It’s always been about the country – your children, your grandchildren.”
Several residents and officials stressed the importance of education to teach the public what should and should not be placed in recycling containers.
“A lot of people didn’t realize that if you have paper that has oil on it, that makes that paper unrecyclable,” John Lake, a former City Council member, said. “I didn’t know that pizza boxes couldn’t be recycled, and I bet a lot of people here didn’t. We need to educate people.”
Courtesy : http://gulfcoastnewstoday.com/